Accuracy of blood meters

RPNKW

Active Member
Messages
35
I have just done an interesting experiment re capillary testing and raise the qustion as to how this method can be trusted.

Did a BM today and followed it up with a number of others 5 hours after eating carb on 6 shots of lantus in day and sedentary activity, largely apart from a one plus half mile stroll home.

18.16pm was 5.6
18.20pm was 4.3
18.21pm was 4.9
18.21pm was 5.1
18.22pm was 5.8
18.23pm was 5.0
18.24pm was 5.8
18.25pm was 4.7
18.26pm was 5.2

These were taken from different fingers each time

Whilst all normal type range the disparity between different digits is intersting.

By the way , anyone wants to get all pious about NHS funds I had to buy my last bunch of strips for £24 due to GP failure to deliver script (Taken on the chin as my GP is excellent and I am always last minute delivery re kit) so can justify a little excess.

I will probably be asdvised that HbA1C is best but food for thought I hope.

RPNKW
 

RPNKW

Active Member
Messages
35
Sorry, meant "6 shots of"..... Novo rapid, I am obsessed with lantus given the number of pharmacies in the uk who never have it to hand, getting benylin is easier.

RPNKW
 

Thirsty

Well-Known Member
Messages
903
Looks like your meter's working within the accepted margin of error. If I've got my sums right, that's an average of 5.15 recurring. Pretty good news.
 

Trinkwasser

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,468
RPNKW said:
Sorry, meant "6 shots of"..... Novo rapid, I am obsessed with lantus given the number of pharmacies in the uk who never have it to hand, getting benylin is easier.

RPNKW

That may be a local thing, check out your PCT for their formulary and you may find they use NPH because it's cheaper. Elsewhere where it is used widely you may not find this problem
 

HLW

Well-Known Member
Messages
723
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Pharmacies should be able to get whatever you want the same day if you drop the prescription off in the morning, or at least they always have in my experience. The larger ones like large Boots shops etc tend to have most things too.
I've never found anywhere (except Boots, but I prefer to go to the little specialist pharmacists) that has enough of the right dose of Actos there and then, I've always had to go back to get the rest :(
 

anne 37

Active Member
Messages
40
regarding your post just this week l had problems with my meter which was giving me very high readings and intially my gp was adjusting my insulin in accordance with these l felt terrible for a week ,my gp then came to the conclusion my meter had been faulty ,as these high readings were going from 24.7 and down to 16. 2 within minutes ,l emailed meter company who supplied this and told them ,with the result l spent 1 hour on the phone answering a whole range of questions ,the outcome is the company now have to carry out an official report regarding this as its a medical device.and because my insulin was adjusted round those faulty readings causing me to be ill.the company were relly nice though and have gave me replacement meter free of charge ,and my diabetes nurse replaced the one l had .so now if l have any doubts l can do comparasons between both meter readings,the lady from the company told me the ratio between reading was 31.6 percent which was well over the 15 ,indicating a fault problem ,she said they work this out with the readings.hope this helps ,
 

Thirsty

Well-Known Member
Messages
903
Anne, I don't know which meter you're using, but mine (an Accu-Chek Aviva from Roche) comes with a couple of control solutions which allow you to check that it's working properly. Did your supplier offer anything like that?
 

anne 37

Active Member
Messages
40
hi thirsty regarding your question when l got my meter there was no control solution with it to allow me to check meter ,company has now issued me with some x
 

diabolic

Newbie
Messages
3
I recently had cause to doubt the accuracy of my Optium Xceed blood glucose meter so I conducted a
comparison test with another meter of exactly the same model.
Both meters were calibrated with the same calibration strip and both meters were checked with a Hi and
a Lo control solution. They were both shown to be well within specification.
I compared results with these meters by taking blood samples from the same site and at the same time.
The results were quite alarming as they showed variations in the readings of between 1% and 20%!
I thought at first that this was a result of careless blood sampling but no matter how meticulous I was with the sampling I still got wide variations between the two meters.
Has anybody else conducted similar experiments on these meters or any others?