Type 2 Why the difference in readings minutes apart?

[IanBish]

Today I did a fingerprick test. The first one didn't register immediately, nor did it error, but after applying a bit more blood it came back with a reading of 4.9. I thought that was too low, so did another test using a different finger and new strip immediately after, and it came back with 6.7. I thought this was too high, so I did another test using the same blood but a different strip, and it came back as 6.1.

I used a new strip for each test, and they don't expire until July 2025, and I always close the container after taking one out.

I was just wondering what the reasons for this could be.

 

[Rachox]

There is an allowable variation for finger prick tests which @KennyA describes in this thread:

Home blood prick tests - a waste of time?

For weeks now, I have been testing twice a day on 2 fingers (same hand) before meals and within a minute or less of each other. Consistently I have been getting randomly different results. I have been recording the readings and there is no pattern whatsoever to explain the sometimes very...

www.diabetes.co.uk

Hope that helps.

 

[searley]

So.. the last 2 are both correct

You need to remember that cheap home testing kits are not lab grade so minor variations of upto 15% can happen

Even lab grade kit will differ just to a smaller degree

 

[IanBish]

It's just as well that the first one wasn't correct, as it was two hours after a sourdough sandwich. I'd have thought I was cured!

 

[Chris24Main]

I'ts kind of miraculous that these things work at all - as a guy whose been involved in making various industrial electronic ....stuff... all my working life, I sometimes just have to step back and marvel at the things we take for granted.