lying test strips

[piranha]

you know, if 3 consecutive blood glucose measurements, within mere minutes, give me 6.7, 4.9, and 5.9, i feel moved to terminate expending $18.75 a vial ($0.75 per strip), with extreme prejudice. this is way beyond an acceptable margin of error. i want my money back. at that price i expect RELIABLE technology.

(and yes, i am careful about storing the vials at the right temperature, keeping them closed, using them within the 3 months i'm supposed to after opening, and no, they've not reached their expiration date either. when i started the vial, the control solution gave an acceptable result.)

Comments

[blur01.livejournal.com]

Foolishly I am going to ask:

Do you clean the finger tip (area from which you are taking blood) before you poke?

I used to just suck my finger before and after pricking. I stopped doing that when I got an accidental reading that was off the scale which came from having just munched a potato chip.

cleaning before testing

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i clean with soap and water before handling any of the equipment. though it shouldn't matter whether i wash, use alcohol swabs, or do nothing, according to a study i read... where was that...

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0MDR/is_2_6/ai_90218711

but i wash anyway because i touch the cats all the time, and generally get my hands dirty working outside. though yeah, licking when you've already eaten, that's not a good idea. :)

[1ginko.livejournal.com]

i agree. they are inconsistent. frustrating and no alternate option seems to exist. i wonder how it compares to the ones we use here that does a whole number count where 50 is "you are passing out" and 210 is "you are coma bound".

[la-penguinita.livejournal.com]

From wiki:

Converting glucose units

The U.S. uses mg/dL. The rest of the world, including Canada and Mexico, uses what is referred to as the "World Standard" of mmol/L.
To convert blood glucose readings:

Divide the mg/dL by 18 to get mmol/L (or multiply by 0.055).
Multiply the mmol/L by 18 to get mg/dL (or divide with 0.055).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The readings pleonastic is getting range between 88 and 120, which is ridiculous.

BTW, I've never seen anything that suggests 210 was "coma bound". That's within Mom's normal range, even with insulin and meds. I've heard of glucose levels in the 600-700 range--but always in conjunction with emergency room experiences.

Re: lying test strips

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

yeah, i accept a margin of error of 10%, but 20% seems a bit much. i mean, i am clearly not in any range where it would be dangerous either way, but what if i were?

i've tested another strip with the control solution and this one came up outside the range printed on the vial. so the vial is probably hosed.

too bad nobody _is_ going to give me my money back. if my doctor says anything about those > 6.1 readings i'll talk with him about the margin of error on these blasted things.

Re: lying test strips

[la-penguinita.livejournal.com]

too bad nobody _is_ going to give me my money back.

Why not?

I'd think the pharmacy would at least exchange a vial of bad strips. (OK, that's not exactly the same as getting your money back, but...) If it's a faulty product, you shouldn't have to pay for it.

Re: lying test strips

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

it's one vial out of a package of 4 (the last one), and there's no proving that i stored it appropriately.

i'll try, but i am not expecting anything.

Re: lying test strips

[la-penguinita.livejournal.com]

Ach. Yeah.

I'll keep my fingers crossed, though! ;-)

Re: lying test strips

[1ginko.livejournal.com]

I have in the past called the 1-800 support number for the test strips, and have had them send replacements for a bad batch. Maybe you can get that??

Re: lying test strips

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

oh, good thinking! since it involves using the phone, of course i didn't consider that. but hey, there i have power, since i can always threaten to switch to a completitor's product. thanks!

[1ginko.livejournal.com]

I should have clarified, in my experience. Since I test as a hypoglycemic, 210 is coma bound for me.

[la-penguinita.livejournal.com]

Oy. Yeah. *duh* I should have thought of that... Sorry.

[1ginko.livejournal.com]

Since my use of the meters is an exception, I would not have expected you to remember.
You do lead me to a point, each person's numbers need to be taken in account and not just following the tables. Another person I know will be in hypoglycemic full symptoms at a 100 reading, where that is a high/normal reading for me.

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

Two friends of mine from high school (identical twins who were the valedictorian and salutorian of our graduating class) are working on a glucose detector that measures levels in saliva instead of in blood, as final project for the biomedical engineering Masters program they're in. Though they're apparently run into a pretty major technical snag.

Sorry, the news seemed sort of on topic.

blood glucose in saliva

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

no reason to apologize, that sounds very interesting. it'd be incredibly welcome if it worked out -- a reliable, non-invasive method would just rock.

hope they overcome the snag.

[firecat]

Sounds like this is clearly a bum vial of strips, but I'll just mention that some meters lie about how much blood they really need. My meter will accept a very small drop but give a way too-high reading from it. So if I get an unusual reading, I'll wash my hands and then get a big drop from a different finger.

Re: lying test strips

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

interesting. this meter bitches when it gets "too little" blood, and there's even a visual cue on the test strip; if the channel doesn't turn red all the way the test will fail. i've presumed that means if it doesn't bitch and the channel is red it got enough, but now i am doubting everything.

all of this throws the idea of self-testing for borderline diabetic conditions into a lot of doubt for me.

Re: lying test strips

[firecat]

My meter won't start the countdown when it gets too little blood but there is a slightly larger amount of blood where it will start and give a wrong result.

It's still a hell of a lot better than no meter, and overall the results mostly track with my HbA1C, but the day to day implementation can be a bitch.

[flarenut.livejournal.com]

FWIW, J, who is using up strips at a gosh-awful rate, reports pretty much the same. 20% variation with no apparent reason. So that might just be the margin for that technology. Obvious question: what, if anything, is the diagnostic/treatment implication of those differences?