I was very excited to get the new Bayer Contour USB Glucometer. It was replacing my Abbott FreeStyle Lite meter. So When I started using it, I ran the Control Solution and it checked out OK. I then measured my BG on the new Contour and my old FreeStyle and was surprised to see the readings were different by around 60 points! So I have been doing this for two days and the two meters still vary widely. Now I’m confused as I don’t know which reading to trust. Anybody have a solution to this? Thanks.
All I have to say is that is scary. We have to trust these devices fro our well being. We use those numbers to make important decisions regarding our diet and doseages yet they dont appear to be that accurate. What is one to do!!!
They’re all allowed to be off by ±20%, so it’s perplexing. My former One Touch is always lower than my current Accu-Chek.
I took several meters to the lab when I had blood tests done. I checked them against the lab results to see which one was closest. It’s not a perfect test, but it helped some.
When I first started with my glucose meters, I had a One Touch Ultra Mini, and a Bayer Breeze2. The One Touch Ultra Mini was always much, much lower… but even though the Breeze2 was always about higher, it was always the ones closest to lab results… so I use that one, instead.
This difference is too high (+/- 20 is normal, from meter to meter, from test strip to test strip). One of these devices must have a malfunction. A very good cross check is to test with both devices when lab tests are done. In the mean time: what happens when you use the control solution on the old meter? Is it in range?
Take 5 tests right in a row with both meters. If you have a difference of more than 20 points on one of the meters complain to the meter company. You have bad strips or a faulty meter. Many of the strips are the problem. My meters are within 20 like Holger said.
Well thanks for all the feedback. I didn’t know about the +/- 20. I threw the Freestyle away as it was the furthest out of whack. Now I just have the Bayer Contour and Bayer Contour USB and they are within 3 points of each other, so I am satisfied that they are relatively accurate. One thing about the Freestyle that bothered me was it seems the sample size varied, while the Bayer strips always use the same amount. Problem is I have 150 Freestyle test strips left over now.
I just did a test on the remaining Freestyle and my 2 Contours. The Freestyle read 225 and the Contours read 175 and 176. So I threw that last Freestyle away, along with 150 test strips (yikes). No matter how many times I test them, both Freestyles were always high and out of whack. Yet they passed the control solution tests. GO figure. The meters are cheap enough that I’m not going to fret over it. But I’m not going to use another Freestyle meter again.
I think your decision is right. How old is the Freestyle now? It could be related to the age of the device. I have read a study that found a correlation between meter age and its accuracy.
Please remember: your higher Freestyle forced you to tighter control. Ha Ha, I am just joking.
The differene you have observed may be in the +/-20% range. Suppose your actual glucose was 200 ml/dl, then 20% would be a difference of 40 mg/dl on either side of 200 or a range of values from 160 to 240. So all of your readings might have been within the error specifications. Also, the blood glucose may have been changing rapidly. It is true that some brands of meters will tend to read higher than others, so that one brand might be better for type 2’s who are trying to lower glucose, but do not need to be concerned as much about hypoglycemia because of the type of medication they have. That same brand might not be good for a insulin dependent person who has hypoglycemic unawareness.