I have both kinds of strips with me here at work. This is my first container of butterflies and they show a code of 16 right on the container…do some of them not have them?
Anyway, I’m about 3 hrs post-prandial and here are the results I got … weird.
Butterfly - 87
Old one - 201 (wha???)
Old one - 129 (second time, just a minute later)
Butterfly - 73
Old one (with blood from the same stick) - 93
And I was sure to change the codes (from 16 to 13 and back…)
I have always found that my readings were wonky when it took longer to get the strip to pick up the blood, or when I had to restick to get enough blood…with the butterfly it does just suck that blood right up (kinda like my old aviva used to!) and the two butterfly readings were a lot closer than the 3 “old style” readings.
I don’t have an extra meter with me but I will check some more when I get home. Needless to say I am not going to bolus unless I’m going to eat.
I have been using the butterfly strips for a couple of weeks and have not experienced a single problem. I did not think of any issues until I read through this discussion. I have occasionally compared my BGs with the “non” butterfly strips and the readings are almost identical. Gotta love the tabs! So much better and easier.
I heard from a person inside Abbott that testing has indicated that the strips work fine in the PDM (not official and of course this person did not give advice on what to do). I believe this individual however because they are a T1 and use the OmniPod.
Also, I understand that the new butterfly strips and the new Lite strips are actually the same strip–they are labeled and marketed differently but they are technically the same physical strip and use the same chemical process. The new strips–and the new chemical process they use–have supposedly been proven to be somewhat more accurate than the old strips (and competitive strips).
After months of waiting my daughter started using the new strips exclusively about four weeks ago. We have had no obvious problems and we occasionally did a side-by-side during the first week. The FDA allows for strips to vary as much as 20%. Even when we measure twice with the new strips we see a 10-15% variance sometimes. These new strips are still supposed to be more accurate when compared to a laboratory test—which is the true standard.
Others may have experienced different results, but at the moment we don’t see issues. I will still feel better when a formal controlled study proves the strips are good to go.
