Type 2 “A Tale of Two Meters”

They are within the 15 per cent tolerance. I would just use the one meter and keep the other as a spare.

Well looking at the numbers, for the blood test, your actual number could've been anywhere between about 5.3 and about 6.3 for both results to have been within a tolerance of about 15%, so you cant tell how much each is out, as xfieldok says, pick one meter and stick with it.

Estragon said:

You guys are the BEST! Of course I like the LOW Meter, but I like the Bluetooth Meter which is HIGH. Decisions, decisions, decisions......

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Ah but tomorrow they could be the other way around and then what would you do? Pick one is my vote. And if it’s the higher one for the Bluetooth see it as motivation

Pick one, definitely. When I was diagnosed I ended up with 4!!!! (I'd purchased one prior to diagnosis, a GP gave me another one, a 3rd one was in a bag given to me at hospital and a 4th sent 'free' through the post)! I admit I was also puzzled about the different readings back then, tried them all at the same time, same fingers, different fingers etc and they were ALL different from each other. Some were higher but lower on a different day, some read lower and then became the highest reading...and on and on...I chose the highest one actually as I preferred to get a nice surprise when the hb1ac test came around.

Estragon said:

Yes, I was rapidly getting towards the HBA1C being the standard that’s away from these skittish Meters. Now, the other thing I just thought was to do with others who’ve achieved LOW morning fasts, could it be that their Meters aren’t on a PAR with mine? Hmmm...

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Well it’s not a competition. As you said, hba1c is an overall measure that you want to look towards. The meters give a way to monitor as a snapshot but they have some accuracy issues but are good to keep an eye on your trends.

you can’t use the meters to really get a view on your hba1c, I made that error in thinking I’d come out lower forgetting I never test the higher spikes from eating, oops

Andydragon said:

Well it’s not a competition. As you said, hba1c is an overall measure that you want to look towards. The meters give a way to monitor as a snapshot but they have some accuracy issues but are good to keep an eye on your trends.

you can’t use the meters to really get a view on your hba1c, I made that error in thinking I’d come out lower forgetting I never test the higher spikes from eating, oops

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I agree with you. I wish they could somehow make them more accurate as those on insulin HAVE to use them to gauge how much to take. If my meter was showing 4 for example, it could be anything between 4 and 6, that can make a big difference as to how much insulin to give myself in conjunction with calculating for food obviously. Again with correction doses it starts with knowing what your reading is to start with. My levels are generally between 4 & 6/7 so with fairly tight numbers it's even trickier I find.

KK123 said:

I agree with you. I wish they could somehow make them more accurate as those on insulin HAVE to use them to gauge how much to take. If my meter was showing 4 for example, it could be anything between 4 and 6, that can make a big difference as to how much insulin to give myself in conjunction with calculating for food obviously. Again with correction doses it starts with knowing what your reading is to start with. My levels are generally between 4 & 6/7 so with fairly tight numbers it's even trickier I find.

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That’s very true, my readings are one thing but don’t make a significant impact on my life apart from the interesting, to me, that carbs last a lot longer in my system than I expected.

maybe with improvements in tech, things like CGM will become more prevelant and accurate.

Is it actually the meter or the strips that result in the differences?

Estragon said:

No it isn’t. My point was that I can’t truly “gauge” my success or lack of against others whose meters aren’t tallying min.

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Estragon said:

No it isn’t. My point was that I can’t truly “gauge” my success or lack of against others whose meters aren’t tallying mine.


Sure, I get it. Don’t use Meters to have a view on my HbA1c. I’m solely laying bare what I’m understanding when I read others might have 4s and 5s when I’m all at 6s and 7s, and I might not be. That’s all.

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well they may be waking up earlier in the morning, or eaten later, or had less/no food. Or you could have some dawn phenomenon. When I'm at work and I'm up earlier in the morning, intend to get high 4s to mid 5s, but if I try and lie in it sometimes raised higher. What I look forward is how I trend against my hba1c. I tend to think, if my hba1c is a certain level and my finger tests stay roughly stable then hopefully my hba1c is also stable. Have just had my annual review so can test that soon. I may well have a lower reading meter too but if I suddenly start to read over 7s on this meter, then I know something is not quite right... Hence sticking to same meter ideally

you can’t gauge against anyone else, your body is your body and how it workS is unique to you. Gauging success against others isn't going to tell you a significant amount for the reasons you say, meter differences etc but where things spike, of the trends change the posts can sometimes allow people to comment in concerns and offer advice or just put a "like" on there. Helps me keep momentum

It is valuable information you raise regarding how meters differ though. Even though I know accuracy can fluctuate, I do get dissapointed when it's high for no apparent reason

Tophat1900 said:

Is it actually the meter or the strips that result in the differences?

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For my money, the enzymes in the strips are the variables. They are affected by storage time, temperature and time exposed to air etc.

The meter is just a collection of electronic components for measuring (presumably) resistance and if the input was identical then the output would also be identical - within a much smaller bandwidth than +/- 15% anyway.

I'd guess they can go wrong due to manufacturing defects but that's where the control solution would play a role.

Hi,
I have just carried out 6x finger prick tests on different fingers, different hands using Agamatrix jazz meter. Tests were done immediately one after the other.
Lowest reading 6.0 mmol/L
Highest reading 6.7 mmol/L

I have another Agamatrix jazz as a spare, and side by side with the same blood 5.9 and 6.0, so not too bad.