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Blood glucose monitors

H

hbedson

Member
Messages
5
Type of diabetes
Type 2
For the past 10 months I have been using a Boots BG monitor.
Yesterday I started to use a Contour BG monitor.
Out of curiosity I decided to do two tests using both models to see if there would be a difference in readings.
The Boots BG monitor read 12.2 and the Contour model read 7.9.
Is there a reason for the above?

Regards

Hazel :?
 
i would be worried about that as i have 2 meters (same type though) and they give me exactly the same reading as each other. It sounds like one if not both of yours are inacurate. Check to make sure that your test strips are in date too
 
Have you checked if they are working ok with calibration solution? The manufacturers usually supply this free of charge.
 
Generally you would expect such a large difference between meter unless one is reading BG value from Plamsa and the other one is giving a whole blood reading, the manuals will tell you which its using, if reading plasma it will say if the figure has been coverted to represent an whole blood BG!

But meters are totally accurate, they do have an accury tollerance that they have to fall within, details of this is also in the spec part of the meter manual..

But other factors can alter readings given by the meters, even if you use the same blood sample for the second reading the blood thickens slightly (no matter how quick you think you are) and this will effect the readings..

Squeezing the finger to get more blood, this dilutes with body fluid changing the result, even using different fingers will give different results..

You need to check what whether plasma or whole blood, then double check with testing solution to ensure meters are in range, if all checks out choose one of them...

I always use only one meter for testing, I have spare meter and use to keep a spare at work, but would only use one of the spare in emergency...
 
can i ask, this is a stupid question. Been watching film panic room , the young girl is diabetic and on the film she has a BM watch. Do these exsist. and if so where do you get , this would save me a whole heap of problems with this being able to monitor my BM for work etc. yea i know this is a stupid question i did give myself a slap before asking just to justify it.
 
They exist - e.g. Glucowatch (the company was bought by Animas, and the product discontinued) or OrSense (in development) - but AFAIK are not widely available.

A more practical, but no less expensive, alternative are regular (invasive) continuous glucose monitors. However, all of these will still require regular calibration, and are intended to be used in addition to, not instead of, regular fingerstick testing.
 
Fig, I had a few problems wih Contour meter when I first used it but it was probably my fault because my poor eyesight makes setting up these things diffficult. try resetting it. When I did this it worked fine. wish the strips were cheaper would use it more often.
 
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