Which do I believe

[Yarmouthshipping]

I have attached a photo showing 2 New meters they have both been checked using supplied fluids.

I had a major hypo 2 years ago which left me with 2 slipped discs and these discs are on the sciatic nerve and consequently i am on Fentanyl Patches.

I try to keep my sugars right but have been getting hypos nearly every night even tho my meter of 4 months shows a reading of 7 or 8 so i took up an offer on this site for a free Abbot meter.

I was shocked to see this result from same sample.

My question is What should i believe.

 

[csarge38]

Hello there,

I have two meters also, an Accu chek aviva nano and the freestyle one in your photo. I checked BG with the Freestyle (4.7) and then used my normal machine (nano) 30 seconds later (5.6). I do tend to believe the nano over anything else really. There must be some sort of +/- tolerance with these machines but 3mmol is a huge difference. If it were me, and as such an uneducated guess, I would go with the higher of the two readings as my Freestyle once said 2.3mmol something that my GP was convinced was a phantom reading................I am not sure if I have answered your question or just droned on about my own levels but if I have helped then great.........if not, well, apologies

Regards

Chris

 

[Yarmouthshipping]

No this is exactly what i want to know, I would love to hear from everyone who cares to add their ideas. My point really is if i didn't have both meters i would not have seen this huge difference i am going to test again at different times of the day. But surely this has to be wrong 3 mmol difference could and please i say could have caused me to have another major hypo and damage myself even more. I went down to 0.8 apparently and was in the throes of dying when i started to fit did my back and broke my shoulder when i fell off the bed unconcious, i do not want that again. Sorry i am rambling now.

 

[izzzi]

Hi Yarmouthshipping,

That is a big variance, I would trust your first meter. Abbot did have a recall issue a few years ago,(not quite sure what the problem was)

A quick way to confirm which one is must accurate, is go to Tesco or other chemist, for free test then try their reading with one of your meter's, this might help you detect which one is less accurate . "It also may be the new strips at fault".

Best of luck.

Roy.

 

[Sid Bonkers]

Hi Yarmouth... Meters have to comply within a tolerance of + - 20% that would mean the 10.4 reading could be 8.3 and the 7.4 reading could be 8.9 so there is a very small overlap.

I would suggest that both readings could be "almost" accurate and as you will rarely get the same readings on different meters even from the same sample of blood. Could one or both strips have been contaminated or been subjected to hot or cold temperatures?

As the tolerances increase the higher the number so they will decrease the lower the numbers so when in hypo territory both meters should be reading closer together ie 20% of 3.8 is .76 so could give a reading of either 4.5 or 3 rather than the 2 mmol/L either way from a reading of 10. Hope that makes sense.

As two meters will never read the same, or very rarely so it is advised to stick with one meter that you feel happy with, in your case if you are suffering a lot of hypos it seem prudent to go with the higher one (10.4) is that a One Touch VerioIQ? If so I just got one and it read slightly higher than my Accu Chek Aviva, although it wasnt as far out as yours. Seems a pretty good meter to me though :thumbup:

 

[Yarmouthshipping]

Thanks to Roy and Sid Bonkers for their input all great info, but surely i should go with the lower of the two meters as if my Verio IQ is higher then i will be going too low the Verio is the older Meter the The Insulinq is the new meter

Thanks

Simon
PS apologies thought i had set up signature

 

[the east man]

I also have the Accu chek aviva nano, but when my prescriptions stopped, I couldnt afford the strips, so I bought the codefree meter. I had some strips left from my nano, and everytime I tested with the codefree, I also tested with the nano to see how they matched. I found the higher my BG was, the bigger difference in the 2 readings, with the codefree always higher ( I have more faith in the Nano). It averaged about 1.00 - 1.50 over about 15 readings. I now just use the codefree, and in my mind, take 1.00 of each reading. I would rather work on my readings being high, than low.

 

[KennyS]

I also have the Accu chek aviva nano, but when my prescriptions stopped, I couldnt afford the strips, so I bought the codefree meter. I had some strips left from my nano, and everytime I tested with the codefree, I also tested with the nano to see how they matched. I found the higher my BG was, the bigger difference in the 2 readings, with the codefree always higher ( I have more faith in the Nano). It averaged about 1.00 - 1.50 over about 15 readings. I now just use the codefree, and in my mind, take 1.00 of each reading. I would rather work on my readings being high, than low.

If I might ask.... how do the readings of your nano compare to your Hba1c. One fear that I have is that my Accu-Check Mobile will be giving me a false sense of reality. It appears to be consistent for food testing which is wonderful for giving me the best control I can give to myself but it would be a hard pill to swallow if I find that my 5.5 readings are really 6.5 or worse! :shock:

Thanks
Kenny

 

[hallii]

I find that the calculations to aproximate the HbA1c results to be way out. I don't even try to second guess the result now.

My Codefree reads high, but I don't mind, being T2 on Metformin it means that the higher readings make me try a bit harder with the diet!

I wish I could justify the cost of the "instant" HbA1c tests, it would take some of the nervousness away as I wait for the results from the doc. and it's that time again in two days, then 5 days wait, then another appointment and then the results. 5.1% last time, but I don't think it will be that good again by my meter results, but then I might be wrong, just like my meter!

H

 

[Sid Bonkers]

surely i should go with the lower of the two meters as if my Verio IQ is higher then i will be going too low

You are of course quite correct Simon, my mistake

Re the HbA1c v's the self testing I would sooner go with my self testing results as an HbA1c will only show an average level over a three month period, they are fine for our care teams for giving an overall picture but do not show the day to day highs and lows that could lead to problems for us somewhere down the road.

 

[jopar]

You can't test one meter against another... If you need to test for accuracy then you need to test it with the test solution for that meter... If you haven't go any ring the manufacturer of the meter and they will send some free of charge..

Even the same meter being used on the same spot of blood will show two different readings..

Which meter would I use the one with the highest reading (after I tested it with test solution) and I'm T1...

It wouldn't necessary put you at an higher risk of serious hypo's because the nearer you get to hypo land, the 20% tolerance means that the level of accuracy is even smaller..

And if you worried about over correcting highs, you tend to adjust the correct ratio accordingly...

Hence once you should always stick to one meter for all testing, and not faff around with having meters for different purposes... You have 2 meters as your second is purely a back up meter, in case the one you use fails.

 

[Yarmouthshipping]

Thanks again for all your replies i am going to stick with the Abbot machine as it has alarms on it so i cannot forget my background insulin which we have all done from time to time also the blood strips for the nano are so fiddly to get out of the container.
However I like the nano meter colour screen just cant get on with the strips

 

[Patch]

If you wanna avoid hypo's - use the meter that gves you the lower readings.

If you REALLY wanna avoid hypo's - STOP TAKING SO MUCH MEDICATION! You're type 2, right? A hypo in a T2 is pretty likely just an overdose of medication relative to what you've eaten. This happens when a T2 takes the same medication, at the same time everyday without considering what they have eaten/are going to eat.

My Dad is one of these people - he gets "hypos" when he hasn't eaten a bar of chocolate with his lunch BUT STILL TAKES METFORMIN AND GLICLAZIDE - because the Doctor told him to... He's under the impression that he gets a hypo because he DIDN'T eat chocolate - NOT because he took BG lowering drugs. :crazy: I dispair.

Good luck with the hypos- I sincerely mean that, :thumbup:

 

[angieG]

I also have the Accu chek aviva nano, but when my prescriptions stopped, I couldnt afford the strips, so I bought the codefree meter. I had some strips left from my nano, and everytime I tested with the codefree, I also tested with the nano to see how they matched. I found the higher my BG was, the bigger difference in the 2 readings, with the codefree always higher ( I have more faith in the Nano). It averaged about 1.00 - 1.50 over about 15 readings. I now just use the codefree, and in my mind, take 1.00 of each reading. I would rather work on my readings being high, than low.

I got issued an Accucheck Mobile by the hospital when I got put on insulin in August. Previously I had used a Freestyle Lite (strips on prescription) and a SD Codefree (strips purchased to give me more tests). The SD was nearly always higher than the Freestyle Lite so I used to think like you. The Accucheck however reads even lower than both of these meters so I was often getting 4 or below which concerned me a bit.
I had an HbA1c done mid November (after my first 3 months on insulin) which came back as 52. This according to the conversions on this website says it would equate to an average of 9.4mmol/L on the meter readings. My Accucheck (which does 90 days averages) at this time said 7.4 whereas the SD for 30 days said 8.8. This means that my SD seems to be reading nearer to the HbA1c value. If this is the case I will need to have readings of 4 and under regularly to get a lowish result next time! :shock: (I need good readings as DVLA want my results to decide whether to reinstate my coach and lorry licences)

Regards
Angie