Meters

Nikion901

Hey everyone ... what brand blood glucose meter do you use, and ... do you find it is accurate?

The reason I ask is that for years i used 'One Touch Ultra SMart' and eventually some things quit functioning on it so I bought a new one, the 'One Touch Ultra Mini" ... but don't trust it any longer as it seems to be very erratic in the readings it gives me.

For example, I can get two widely varying readings from two successive test (one from clean hands finger 1, and one from clean hands finger 2) ... which I have done recently to kind of verify the meter. Also, I got a reading of 174 before a meal and 122 one hour after the meal, where no meds were taken ... so I know that is not right at all.

Now I am looking for a new meter and wanted to find out what you would recommend.

DLDzioba

I use the Wal-Mart brand Reli-on Ultima. My sugar averages have been in line with my a1c so I think it's pretty accurate. Also strips don't cost all that much.

judyvalentine512

I use one touch ultra. I'm guessing it's okay, but I never did a test on it like that. Food for thought.

BarneyRubbleMD

The best way to test a new meter is to see how is compares with your lab measurements. The next time you have
a fasting blood sugar test at the Dr's office, consider taking your meter(s) along and take several readings(i.e. 3)
and average them to see how close they are to the lab measurement that gets reported back to you. These personal blood glucose meters are to be about +/- 15% accurate to the lab measurement (I think that used to be +/- 20%) which doesn't sound that great but it's the requirement they have to meet.

My FreeStyle Freedom Lite test strips were expensive since I was testing 6-8 times/day so I got a different
meter (CVS Advanced) with cheaper test strips to compare with and after comparing the results, decided to switch meters even though the readings with the CVS Advanced meter were a little higher (around 4-6 mg/dL higher).

My glucose meter comparison results are given below...

In September2015 I got a new blood glucose meter (CVS Advanced--$18 for the meter, $23 for 100 test strips)
to replace my old FreeStyle Freedom Lite meter that's several years old. Since I had both meters and a
lab blood test coming up, I decided to do a comparison by taking my blood sugar measurements 4 times
with each meter immediately after my blood was taken for the lab test (i.e. each finger got "poked" with
a lancet in 2 different locations). Those results are below:

FreeStyle Freedom Lite meter readings: 85, 105, 99 & 97 (average 96.5).
CVS Advanced meter readings: 101, 101, 100 & 99 (average 100.25).
Lab reading: 96.

In December2015, I re-checked my CVS meter reading with the lab results from my follow-up Dr's visit:
CVS Advanced meter readings: 96, 84, 102, 100 & 97 (average 95.8).
Lab reading: 90

So, my new meter (CVS Advanced) is about an average of 4-6 mg/dL higher than the reading from the lab
but both my old & new meters are well within the 15% accuracy requirement to the lab measurement.

One reason I decided to change to the CVS Advanced glucose meter (rather than stick with my old one) was
because of the "meal tagging" feature it has. This feature lets me "tag" (i.e. mark) each meter reading
with a "meal tag" for pre-breakfast, post-breakfast, pre-lunch, post-lunch, pre-dinner, post-dinner or bedtime
and provides "meal tag" 14-day averages (& standard deviations) for each of those "meal tag groups" making it
very easy to keep track of how my pre-meal & post-meal glucose readings are doing. The other reason I
switched to the CVS Advanced meter is the much cheaper cost of the test strips (CVS online store has had
these on sale for as low as $0.16 per test strip).

Nikion901

Oh, I think I ust learned why there is such a difference ... The OneTouch Ultra Smart meter I was using before was calibrated for whole blood glucose, while the new OneTouch Ultra Mini meter is calibrated for blood plasma glucose readings ... there is a difference in what you will get, with higher readings from the plasma models.

Also ... when I double tested, I often used the same finger ... and just read that the second drop of blood you get from your finger is not like the first drop because it has more fluid ... thus a different concentration of plasma glucose.

Whew ... I'm glad to know this. As I will now adjust myself to this newer technology in what the readings are telling me.

Thanks for everyone who gave suggestions.