Blood Monitors

It appears that no one is answering you. I can't really answer you because I am in the U.S., and there is no confusion about what kind of monitor to use. All the monitors here apparently use the same method (whatever that method is). It seems to me that all monitors for home use must be whole-blood monitors. Why? Because that's what comes out of our bodies when we prick ourselves. If there are glucose monitors that are designed to test just plasma, they wouldn't be any use to consumers because consumers have no way to separate out their plasma. Doesn't that make sense?

In the UK all bg monitors used to measure the glucose in whole blood but changed over to plasma last year/2010. The monitoring technique remains unchanged but the results are very slightly higher ie:

Whole Blood 5.0 mmol/L becomes 5.5 to 5.8 mmol/L
Whole Blood 5.8 mmol/L becomes 6.4 to 6.7 mmol/L
Whole Blood 6.9 mmol/L becomes 7.6 to 7.9 mmol/L
Whole Blood 8.3 mmol/L becomes 9.1 to 9.5 mmol/L
Whole Blood 8.9 mmol/L becomes 9.8 to 10.2 mmol/L
Whole Blood 10 mmol/L becomes 11.0 to 11.5 mmol/L

Information from the Accu-Chek web site gives all the info: http://www.accu-chek.co.uk/gb/news/14april10.html

To be honest I didnt notice much of a difference after my strips changed over, the most noticeable difference seemed to be my fasting readings which had been pretty much all 5's and started to slip into all 6.1's to 6.5's. I have actually now got them mainly back in the 5's which I am pleased with and probably wouldnt have happened if the hadn't changed the testing system over to plasma as I would have carried on not trying to lower them. Every cloud has a silver lining as they say LOL

The difference in those numbers seems fairly substantial to me.

I'll have to find out what kind of meters we use in the U.S. I so much prefer the American numbers, which seem much more exact to me.

All meters in the US give plasma readings and have for some years. As Sid says the changeover was later in the UK and for some years there were meters like the one touch ones that gave plasma readings and the Accuchek which gave whole blood readings until the end of last year The strip itself rather than the meter determines the result (ie how it's calibrated )
As for mg/dl and mmol/l you get familiar with the one you're used to.
The meters/strips aren't really different from country to country, I use strips from a mg/dl country in a mmol/l meter.
My first meter could easily be altered from one unit to the other. The regulating authorities discovered that some people were changing the units by accident . There was a potential for mistakes so in the EU manufacturers were compelled to disable the mechanism.

spendercat said:

Here I am with another stupid question. Are we all on plasma based readings now? Apparently thats the new Euro standard, along with the new Hbaic readings to a new base. Do they do it on purpose to keep us baffled, do you suppose?
No-one ever says what sort of monitor they use, and I use a whole blood monitor, so my readings are lower than anyone using the other sort. In future if I mention a reading I will always say that its whole blood based.

Click to expand...

CHECK! Some meters, like my Bayer Contour, (fairly new) read whole blood, but if you read the bumpff you'll see that it's REFERENCED to Plasma, so get Plasma level readings. If you're not sure, phone the meter company for clarification.

I've also noticed a large increase in fasting levels - I suppose they changed the strips over without telling anyone (Bayer). At least I've got a possible explanation for my discouraging results recently.

Daisy,
Bayer meters in the UK have been plasma calibrated for a while. If you look up the Swiss website both the contour and the Breeze are also plasma referenced .
I've put in a couple of links because:
a) theres an offer to swap an old Breeze meter for a new one.
http://www.bayerdiabetes.ch/fr/produits ... breeze.asp
b) If you have a contour they will send you some stickers to make your meter pretty
http://www.bayerdiabetes.ch/fr/produits ... ticker.asp