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The most accurate glucose meters

M

MarcR

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Type 2
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I've read the sinocare gold aq is the most accurate one, just wondered does anyone use this one? I read bayer next contour is good too.
 
I've read of people checking 3 fingers within 5 minutes with some meters and getting different readings.
 
MarcR said:
I've read of people checking 3 fingers within 5 minutes with some meters and getting different readings.
Click to expand...
Almost everybody in the world could find that too! I don't just mean us lot who have diabetes, I mean humans. Exactly the same amount and make-up of blood cannot be in every nook and cranny of a person's body in the same moment, can it?
 
I don't know about the Sinocare Gold but people have reported problems with the basic Sinocare giving a false low reading when you don't get enough blood on the test strip rather than an error code, so people can mistakenly think they are hypo when they aren't.

Why are you concerned with accuracy? None are accurate to the decimal place they quote. Even those of us on insulin don't worry too much about accuracy. They all have to be within 15% of the actual BG 95% of the time and that is good enough to dose insulin from. Reliability is more important which is why I would be wary of the Sinocare.

As regards different fingers giving different readings, blood is not homogenous and BG levels are constantly in flux so not surprising that fingers will be slightly different and then there is the variability in test strips.

Sometimes you have to take a bit of a leap of faith (particularly those of us using insulin) and just accept that near enough is good enough, although we are encouraged to retest any reading which doesn't seem right (within the expected range) and/or doesn't correspond with how we are feeling.
 
I am on record as suggesting that Blood Glucose Meters get rid of the displayed numbers and adopt a five-point "ish" scale:
  • Hypo-ish
  • Lowish
  • Average-ish
  • Highish
  • Hyper-ish
There is obvious room for refinement if you w-ish to have a seven-point or even nine-point scale, but I don't think BGMs would be accurate enough for these.
It's arguable that BGMs should display mmol/L values in integers, without including a decimal point value, and pay more attention to the 'trend' - down-ish, stable-ish, up-ish, also possibly on a five-point scale.

PS This is intended to be only partly humorous...
 
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I use a Sinocare Safe AQ and haven't had any issues with it. Don't know about the Sinocare Gold AQ it may be more accurate but, as others have said the number after the decimal is really not that relevant. Another poster on here @Docb has previously suggested that the best approach is to round up or down to the nearest whole number to get a more accurate view of your levels. For example 6.4 would be 6 but 7.8 would be 8.
BG is not concentrated evenly within the blood stream and as blood is pumped around the body continuously, even pricking the same finger may give a different result to the previous test.
 
Summed things up nicely@JimmyBlue. I would also add there is much point in reacting to results unless the readings are more than 2 whole units wide of what you might have expected.

I would also say that it is amazing that such a simple device can get anywhere a blood glucose level as a result let alone providing numbers which when used well, can be used to manage diabetes.

Cost of strips and any other features it might have are more important factors when it comes to choosing a meter.
 
The accuracy that all glucose meters need to comply with in the UK is good enough for those of us who take insulin to calculate our dose.
the way I see it there are so many approximations that we make along the way (e.g. how many carbs in what we eat - even if we weigh the food and read the nutritional information, it won't be 100% accurate) and so many things beyond our control that can impact our BG (e.g. stress), being within 15% accuracy on the meter is good enough.
Is there a reason why you need the most accurate meter, @MarcR ?
 
Contour Next often comes out well in any benchtest type research. As do Roche meters of various flavours.

This study is a little long in the tooth now, but has some familiar brands on it (not Sinocare unfortunately)

Comparative Accuracy of 17 Point-of-Care Glucose Meters - PMC

The accuracy of point-of-care blood glucose (BG) meters is important for the detection of dysglycemia, calculation of insulin doses, and the calibration of continuous glucose monitors. The objective of this study was to compare the accuracy of ...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
 
helli said:
The accuracy that all glucose meters need to comply with in the UK is good enough for those of us who take insulin to calculate our dose.
the way I see it there are so many approximations that we make along the way (e.g. how many carbs in what we eat - even if we weigh the food and read the nutritional information, it won't be 100% accurate) and so many things beyond our control that can impact our BG (e.g. stress), being within 15% accuracy on the meter is good enough.
Is there a reason why you need the most accurate meter, @MarcR ?
Click to expand...
 
helli said:
The accuracy that all glucose meters need to comply with in the UK is good enough for those of us who take insulin to calculate our dose.
the way I see it there are so many approximations that we make along the way (e.g. how many carbs in what we eat - even if we weigh the food and read the nutritional information, it won't be 100% accurate) and so many things beyond our control that can impact our BG (e.g. stress), being within 15% accuracy on the meter is good enough.
Is there a reason why you need the most accurate meter, @MarcR ?
Click to expand...
Just seems better to have a more accurate one, from what I've read bayer next is good
 
@Marc R - choose whatever brand you want to, based on whatever criteria suits you - brand name, colour, how many bells and whistles they have or availability and cost of strips.

The point is that they all (at least the common brands) meet the required standard and as such are equally valuable in providing results you can use to monitor and control your diabetes.
 
Docb said:
@Marc R - choose whatever brand you want to, based on whatever criteria suits you - brand name, colour, how many bells and whistles they have or availability and cost of strips.

The point is that they all (at least the common brands) meet the required standard and as such are equally valuable in providing results you can use to monitor and control your diabetes.
Click to expand...
For the moment I have spare strips and lances to use up, and I don't test that often so might take a while, but once it does I might consider a contour next
 
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