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Meter/Test Strip accuracy

Thank you young sir for your complete and very quick response - just what I needed.
I just finished a trial of the Libre where I had a series of very low (3.2) that did not respond to handfuls of jelly babies (it was very early morning and I did not have any food handy). I'm wondering if the Libre had bottomed out on its reading and so took a while to get back to sensible reading? Anyway I just needed to check what my current meter's accuracy was. Thanks again.
 
@Old_Dave, I am intrigued about the reason behind your question.
Are you getting different readings with this meter compared to another?
 
Old_Dave said:
Thank you young sir for your complete and very quick response - just what I needed.
I just finished a trial of the Libre where I had a series of very low (3.2) that did not respond to handfuls of jelly babies (it was very early morning and I did not have any food handy). I'm wondering if the Libre had bottomed out on its reading and so took a while to get back to sensible reading? Anyway I just needed to check what my current meter's accuracy was. Thanks again.
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You are welcome.

Do you know that liquids are more easily absorbed and as such are more effective for dealing with hypo's. Have you tried Glucojuice, Coca-Cola (or any of the popular soft drinks), orange juice, Lucozade?
 
helensaramay said:
@Old_Dave, I am intrigued about the reason behind your question.
Are you getting different readings with this meter compared to another?
Click to expand...
Oh yes though it's not normally bad it can be up to a couple of points difference and with the Libre that includes checking it against its own finger prick and reading (reading=5 - finger prick reading 7). It's a real shame as I felt that the ease of reading and the quantity of readings were both great - maybe next time. If you don't believe me try it yourself with your own meter and a few test strips. There may not be a difference of the size I witnessed but there will be a difference.
 
urbanracer said:
You are welcome.

Do you know that liquids are more easily absorbed and as such are more effective for dealing with hypo's. Have you tried Glucojuice, Coca-Cola (or any of the popular soft drinks), orange juice, Lucozade?
Click to expand...
Yes I agree with you regarding the soft drinks however Jelly Babies are so much easier to carry and the Black Ones - wow!
 
Old_Dave said:
Oh yes though it's not normally bad it can be up to a couple of points difference and with the Libre that includes checking it against its own finger prick and reading (reading=5 - finger prick reading 7). It's a real shame as I felt that the ease of reading and the quantity of readings were both great - maybe next time. If you don't believe me try it yourself with your own meter and a few test strips. There may not be a difference of the size I witnessed but there will be a difference.
Click to expand...
Ah yes, the Libre!

Unfortunately, I experienced inconsistent discrepancies between my finger prick and Libre and, for this reason (and that it fell off), I decided against the Libre. I realise many people love the Libre and find the variation between one sensor and a finger prick tends to be consistent: when you take into consideration the 15 minute lag with the Libre, if a Lbre reading is 20% higher than a finger prick, they are always about 20% higher for that sensor.
This was not my experience - the variation was all over the place with a single sensor.
I have come to the conclusion, it is an issue with the combination of me and the Libre - no one's fault, my arms are just not "designed" with the Libre in mind.

I trust the finger prick much more and, when I looked it up, I discovered that the finger pricks are more accurate. The Libre rep told me the Libre are within 12% accuracy which is the accuracy required to pass the required standard.
 
helensaramay said:
Ah yes, the Libre!

Unfortunately, I experienced inconsistent discrepancies between my finger prick and Libre and, for this reason (and that it fell off), I decided against the Libre. I realise many people love the Libre and find the variation between one sensor and a finger prick tends to be consistent: when you take into consideration the 15 minute lag with the Libre, if a Lbre reading is 20% higher than a finger prick, they are always about 20% higher for that sensor.
This was not my experience - the variation was all over the place with a single sensor.
I have come to the conclusion, it is an issue with the combination of me and the Libre - no one's fault, my arms are just not "designed" with the Libre in mind.

I trust the finger prick much more and, when I looked it up, I discovered that the finger pricks are more accurate. The Libre rep told me the Libre are within 12% accuracy which is the accuracy required to pass the required standard.
Click to expand...

I agree with much of what you say @helensaramay but I would add:-
Firstly I confess to be having an issue with a Libre sensor as we speak so please do not think I am saying it is perfect - how I wish it was.

But I do not think that a finger prick test is always more accurate than a Libre sensor and let me explain why.

I think that most meters need to be within 15% accurate and as you say the Libre is about 12% (when it is working on your body!). Then there are a lot of variables with the finger test. The strip has to be uncontaminated - the finger clean, the blood must be the second drop or they all build inaccuracies.

On Sunday I did a finger test and it came in at 6.8. I thought that was a bit high so I did five further tests, some on different fingers and some on second drop but all within about 3mins and I got a range of 5.9 - 6.8. They are all in the 15% medium of 6.35. The second drop of blood said 6.2 and my libre recorded 6.2 every min for the following 10mins until I stopped scanning it. Now if I was just doing a single strip test I could of settled for 6.8 and who knows that might have been right and to a large extend what does .6 matter.

But sometimes the darn sensors just do not work properly - sometimes not for 24hours and in that sense - the finger test is far more accurate. I am sitting here and getting a reading of 3.9 on my Libre (if only) where my finger test is in the 5's.

What I do find though is that generally the Libre is really good at trends of up and down - and most importantly showed me what happened when I was stressed - sometimes a double bounce on the food I ate - exercise, sleep patterns and all sorts of other things. So I would conclude my very long post with both tests have a value and there is nothing stopping you doing a calibration test on the Libre once or twice a day (via a real finger test) to give you both 24x7 trends and adjusted BG levels.
 
I've found (thanks to other posts on the topic!) that for me my newly inserted sensor need to sit and acclimatize for around 48 hours before i can actually activate it and get sensible readings. Activating earlier, I used to regularly get an incorrect and long series of very lows over the first few days after I inserted a new one - particularly overnight if I slept on my sensor arm.

Mine have regularly read lower than my finger prick test, but they do relate very closely to the actual basic patterns I see from prick tests, which is really all I personally need as a diet controlled T2. Unfortunately this year's sensors have been completely unreliable adhesive wise, but those I used last year stuck like limpets and my only worry was whether I'd be able to remove them again.:wideyed: For me they were an excellent source of extra, detailed, information that I could never have obtained from finger pricking, so I've currently been very disappointed with their complete lack of stickyness.

Robbity
 
Stickiness has been my biggest issue on the last four sensors and I have resorted to sticking a clear plaster to help. Like you I found they were almost impossible to get off!
 
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