Accuracy of meter and strips

1

I have a Lifescan OneTouch Ultrasmart - I recently tested and got a result of 173. I thought that was high, so pulled a different bottle with a different strip number and tested again and got 143. So I got my control solution and tested both strips - both registered ok according to the control solution. I repeated the test and got 177 vs 152. That seems like an awful big difference between 2 different strip numbers. I’m trying to find another Lifescan meter I have to run the same tests on that meter. What are you thoughts on this?

Thanks,
Mark

2

I have an Accu Check Aviva, and have had similar issues. I didn’t change boxes, I just tested on a couple different strips, and they eventually evened out. Not sure how to take it, but I guess it happens. I am newly diagnosed, so this is all a learning experience for me.

3

Dear Mark.

This is really horrible. I dont see what you can do with information like that, it is useless. The cause again is laissez faire capitalism when it comes to little people. The big boys get baillouts. The SEC, EPA and FDA are useless. Ten years ago I had a meter that if you did duplicates like that they would be withing 2 or at worst 3% from the mean yours are off by 10%. Moreover if you did a triplicate and compared the mean to the lab result my Ascentia Elite was always 5% below the lab result. Not above or below but always below and by 5%…What has changed why are the meters so lousy now?

I think a lot has to do with the 5 second measurement time. The old meter was 60 second mesurement time.

You could study the effect of food, exercise or anything. Now sometimes my meters reads 90 and I am sure I am experiencing nasty hypoglycemia.

DEAR READERS OF THIS BLOG, MARK HAS HIT ON A REAL PROBLEM. COULD YOU DO A TRIPLICATE: THAT IS MEASURE WITH 3 DIFFERENT STRIPS SIMULTANEOUSLY TO HAVING A BLOOD SAMPLE TAKEN FOR THE LAB BLOOD TEST. REPORT BACK THE OFFICIAL BLOOD TEST RESULT AND ALSO THE 3 METER READINGS. WE WILL HAVE A CLUE OF THE PRECISION ( THE LACK OF IS THE PROBLEM DESCRIBED ABOVE) AND EVEN MORE IMPORTANT THE ACCURACY ( SOMETHING THAT MOST OF US HAVE NO IDEA) OF DIFFERENT METERS.