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Blood Glucose meter

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thelis

thelis

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Our surgery recently changed our meters from Freestyle Freedom Lite to Element TM. Has anyone heard of or used the Element TM meter. I was shocked when I compared them both and also a Glucomen meter. I got the following results.

Element 6.8 Freestyle 4.6 Glucomen 5.6 - 2 hrs. after lunch
8.9 7.2 7.8 - 2 hrs. after dinner

I haven't a clue which one is correct or which one to use now.

Does anyone have any ideas on this please.
 
Your results are probably within the limits of meter accuracy, not that helps you a lot. Did you test on the same lancet prick or on different sites. Repeat your test with just one meter and see what readings you get.

I have found (not scientifically) that the 'cheap' meters tend to read high. The Element tm is a Korean made job, made by infopia who have been in business since 1996 and the test strips are not particularly cheap (based on a quick ebay search).

Unless you think you can beat your GP into reverting policy, I would suggest you try the new meter for a few days and compare with your previous normal readings.
 
Hi Thelis
I've no experience of that particular one, but I had three meters at once for a while and they were consistently quite different. The clinic was trying to get me to move to the accu-chek expert meter, I already had the contour next USB and they also gave me the accuchek mobile. The results were wildly higher with the mobile, than the other two because there was something wrong with the cassette (that nearly gave me a panic attack 🙄 seeing double figures staring back at me) so it's a good idea to try some control solution if you have any to make sure you haven't got a faulty batch of strips. The other two weren't faulty but the Expert meter routinely was about 1 point higher than the contour except in the morning when they matched. At that point I chose the one I found most accurately reflected how I felt. The contour one read hypo when I felt hypo, whereas the expert had me higher so I went with the contour. The average blood sugar on my contour is also always freakishly close to my hba1c too so I know it's pretty spot on, so if you have concerns maybe talk to the GP?

Hope you get it sorted, it's no fun when you don't feel you can trust the meter.
 
Thank you both for your replies. I will try and make an appointment with my GP.
 
Well I didn't like the Accuchek Expert cos it always read higher. But you know what? - it was right and my old meter was wrong!
 
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