Testing Your Meter?

Diabetes Technology Glucose Monitoring
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I have done this many times myself so this isn’t surprising to me.
Note this isn’t my image but it was shared in one of the T1 groups on Facebook and I have permission to share

I always go by Contour Next and Accu-Chek. Their averages are very close with my A1c and Accu-Chek was spot on when I compared its reading with a lab glucose test using the same arterial blood sample a little while ago, which I always recommend others with diabetes do.

Haven’t tested the Contour Next One (my current meter) but have compared it with Accu-Chek many times and they’re very close.

What do you all use and what are your thoughts?

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Contour Next One - Nothing else comes close to it in consistent accuracy. Also has the highest MARD rating and potentially least expensive strips.

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This is also eye-opening to me. :astonished:

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Here is study on MARD, ranking Contour Next as best. From 2016.

I also use contour next, not covered by insurance but strips reasonable cost on amazon.

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A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.

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I tend to disagree with that. I want to know my meter is as accurate as possible.
It’s not about having to test using different meters all the time, just finding one that you can trust.

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You can
Purchase a glucose standard with tight limits.
I have a laboratory grade solution at 100 mg/dL that I use. 2 percent tolerance. My one touch has never failed. And that’s an old meter like 7 years old. I’ve kept it just because it updates direct to my current pump. My new will use dexcom so I do t need that but I’ll prob keep it cause it still is working.

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I have finger pricked myself more than 150,000 times (scary, but that is the math of T1 for 40 years, with BG testing for 30+ years). Actually I have probably fingerpricked 200,000+ times.

To this day, I can do two or three fingerpricks in a two minute period and get numbers like 157, 142, and 116. It just happens. Whenever I fingerprick and get a value that is different than CGM or an unexpected value, I always re-prick once or possibly twice before I get a number that I am happy with. My general rule…if fingerprick is less than CGM, then the fingerprick is more accurate. If greater (materially) than CGM, retest because it is possible that the fingerstick is inaccurate.

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Purchase a glucose standard with tight limits.
I have a laboratory grade solution at 100 mg/dL that I use.

The standard solution will only check for the meter’s factory calibration with the test strips and that the code matches, so in a sense they check the batch of strips and not the overall accuracy of the meter. Those are different things.

If you want to test your meter’s accuracy you can take it to the lab with you when they do a blood draw and test using the same blood from the vein. Then compare it with your lab’s glucose test result. If you do this a few times with consistent matching or close to matching results it would be safe to assume the meter is accurate.

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I will always take a blood glucose reading over a CGM one.
If the difference between the two is over 10mg/dL, I will test my blood again and calibrate the CGM.

My meter usually shows very similar readings when testing even three times in a row.

With a CGM there seem to be too many variables and factors that can affect the readings.

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