Yeah the image of pippeting blood to do such a test makes me smile 
Wow, I usually have at least a 10 pt diff!.
Any idea how accurate lab BG results need to be?
That is a really good question and not one I have ever given much thought about. We use it as a gold standard but is there deviation in that as well? You have me thinking. I am going to go over to the Hospital and grill the lab people (they know me well as I am always asking weird questions like this) and I will let you know what I find out.
Thanks! I always wondered, but for some reason never explored.
I get that all the time, I’ll test my fingers on my left hand, and it’s always higher than on my right side. I’ve tested with two different meters, and it test the same…
Got some answers. At a glucose of 59 mg/dl or under their standards are +/- 6mg/dl. At any other glucose it is +/- 10%. He said when he has to repeat analysis (extreme BG’s) it is almost always the same value. Whether that means it is reliable (e.g. consistently reports at 5% under) or that it is valid (the actual glucose) is debateable.
Wow that was quick!
+/- 10%… I thought it was better than that. That’s twice as accurate as our inaccurate meters, but certainly not a gold standard. Silver maybe.
So if we’re checking our meters against the lab results anything within 10% is the best we can expect. I’m surprised.