3 different BG results in 5 mins

All BG meters are accurate to within 15% I.e. if you get a reading of 20, the true result will be between 17 mmol/l and 23 mmol/l 95% of the time and that's without user error, local contamination and so on.

Dear MissyLA33,
As you are already aware an initial morning reading of 10.5 mmol/L is too high but you are dealing with this so I won't elaborate further.

Firstly it probably dosen't matter too much if your B/G meter is inacurate (most are) as you are probably conduction your testing by always using the same instrument, so what readings are being obtained will all be relative and the error, if there is one will hopefully be consistant, though it's always nice to know if the meter does comply with the Dr's or Hospital's instruments.

As for the three reading that you took 2 hours after eating a meal and their 3 differing values you might need to think why this should be.

The human body dosen't controll B/G levels precisely and as a consequence B/G levels can flutuate up/down by the minute, however the variences that you have recorded make me suspect that this might be due to an one of several other problems that might be overlooked.

It isn't commonly mentioned, but with these new types of blood glucose meters, which use a tiny drop of blood as the sample, the first drop that is obtained from the finger prick should never be used and should always be discarded, and any measurments made should be through testing a further second droplet.

Also check that the sample test strips are within date, as out of date strips will give incorrect results.

It is also advisable to wash your hands (if finger testing is used) with warm soapy water and properly dry your fingers before using the lancet.

A common problem is with mothers of small children who may have handled their children's sticky food or sweets, as any residue on the fingers will naturally give rise to a high or eractic B/G reading.

These are just my quick thoughts which I hope might answer your erratic B/G readings.

With my best wishes - Lazybones

Hi

I get the same variance on my SD Codefree if it's any consolation.

I wonder if that is why it's quite cheap?

I just use it as a guide and hope for the best.
:wink:

Cara

The article I read said they're hoping to get the accuracy down to within 15%, but I don't believe they're there yet. I've only being doing this for about a month, but have done a lot of testing on my fancy Contour Next meter, but have got some widely ranging results. One morning I had a variance of over 2 mmol between 2 different fingers.

Even assuming the real number was bang square in the middle, that 15% number is looking shaky. The way I see it, just how much glucose hits and is registered by the sensors on that strip is really in the hand of the gods. Use it is a guide, to determine how well you're doing and to spot spikes, but always be a little skeptical.

AlexMBrennan said:

All BG meters are accurate to within 15% I.e. if you get a reading of 20, the true result will be between 17 mmol/l and 23 mmol/l 95% of the time and that's without user error, local contamination and so on.

Click to expand...

And at the higher or lower ends of the scale the error could be more than that - that's a characteristic of most meters that they are most accurate in the middle 2/3 of the range.

I've had my meter reading off the bottom of the scale when I felt mildly low. Retested and it came back around 2.9. If it was really LO i should have been on the floor