Are Meters Accurate Enough?
More accurate blood glucose meters would help all of us. The manufacturer of my meter says that if the meter gives a reading that is within 20 percent, it is working fine. This means that if the true reading is 100, I could get results ranging from 80 to 120 and the meter is working fine.
Are there reasons for this inaccuracy? Has anyone tried to make them better?
Karl D. Smith
Broadview Heights, Ohio
David E. Bruns, MD, University of Virginia School of Medicine, responds: These are concerns with all medical testing: How accurate are the methods that are available? How accurate must the methods be to meet clinical needs? Both questions are unavoidable because all methods of measurement have error. Both questions are difficult to answer especially in the case of blood glucose meters.
Many studies have attempted to evaluate the accuracy of blood glucose meters, but many, if not most, of the studies suffer from deficiencies. For example, many papers report the performance of a meter only in the hands of a single highly skilled medical technologist, working under ideal conditions, often paid by the manufacturer (directly or indirectly), sampling a few strips and meters. Such a study does not tell us how the meters perform in the hands of people who are not highly trained medical technologists and who will be doing the testing day or night, under less-than-ideal conditions, potentially with distractions, vision problems, and all. Some of the better studies do address this question, and find that meters do not perform as well under real-life conditions as in laboratories.
Having said that, however, it is also clear that meters have improved over time. Many of the innovations in meters can be expected to make the quality of results less dependent on the environment and on the operator’s skill. Such improvements include “no-wipe” strips, automatic timing, automatic detection of sample volume, and small sample size.
It is difficult to define how well meters perform and how accurate they need to be. We can probably all agree that it would not matter much if a meter reported a result of 99 mg/dl as 100 mg/dl. In contrast, we surely would agree that it would be terrible if a meter reported a glucose of 25 mg/dl as 100 mg/dl. Somewhere between such extremes we must find where an error makes a difference.
The current Guidelines on Laboratory Testing in Diabetes propose a goal of less than 5 percent total error for glucose meters. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not require such a high performance, and no meters have been shown to meet that goal in real-world use. That is not to say, however, that the current performance of meters is such as to make them unacceptable. It simply says that the technology, despite all the improvements, may not yet be at a level to produce a meter with that characteristic. Moreover, we do not really know if a person’s glucose control will be improved by using a meter with a total error less than 5 percent rather than a meter with a total error of 10 percent.
Clearly, use of glucose meters, even the earlier kinds used in the Diabetes Complications and Control Trial, has had a profound impact on control of blood glucose.
Comments
Meter accuracy
With all do respect to Dr Bruns I find that answer to be unsatisfactory I have had several experiences when testing my levels they were all over the place one example I had a reading of 185 I knew I had not changed my diet I could not understand why my reading was so high I tested again a minute later it was 138 ,I took that sample from my other hand this has happened several times the readings are very different when a test from my other hand I was not sure how much insulin to inject I called my Doctor and her nurse told I had to much blood on my test strip? I was not satisfied with her explanation so I called the meter company. They told me it was not the amount of the sample I had a bad meter they sent me a new meter. The meter worked great for about a two months and it malfunctioned again. I feel this is a serious problem that needs to be addressed knowing how much insulin to inject is crucial to maintaining proper levels.
accuracy of blood glucose meters
The September, 2008, issue of Consumer Reports magazine contains a report on current blood glucose meters that is informative as far as comparative accuracy is concerned but does not specify what the acceptable range of results was. Still, it is helpful.
Austin Stibbe
Nevis, MN
what are good readings versus bad readings
I have been a diabetic for about 20 years, I am now 67 1/2. Recently within the last month, my blood sugar has made a 90 degree change. I am use to my readings to be about 119 when I get up in the morning. I use to have trouble with my sugar dropping to about 60. now it reads about 180. Also after I eat a meal it
has been about 300 or more. It takes about 3 hours for it to drop
and then it does not go below 150 My doctor is trying me on some other pills. What should the readings beon( average)?
I have run into an issue
I have run into an issue with my glucometer running 20% plus or minus. I am very sensitive but as I look back, I trust that my body is doing okay with letting me know when my bloodsugars are below 90. However, if the machine says that I am 133 and an actual blood draw is only 117, that is quite a difference. I talked with the company and am very concerned about the variances as they explained that the 20 plus or minus was a normal range for their machine. I am looking for something that is more accurate since I do not dare take my diabetic medicine which is only 4mg. If I were to cut the dosage, it has not helped. I am a type 2 diabetic and have been for near six years now. I am glad that my body lets me know when my blood sugar is down. I also had a dietitian explain that my brain needs more sugar and may be signally me to awaken to take in protein so that I do not run into further problems.
Thanks for letting share this with you.
diabetes type 2
I am 43 years and have diabetes type 2. in fasting 160mg. can i control my diabetes with diet and walk or i have to take medicine.
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20 percent error, and Dr Bruns answers are both unsatisfactory
Karl reported that "The manufacturer of my meter says that if the meter gives a reading that is within 20 percent, it is working fine. This means that if the true reading is 100, I could get results ranging from 80 to 120 and the meter is working fine."
Manufactures should not be allowed to market meters with a 20 percent error range. 20 percent error in blood glucose readings is way too much for health and safety. And the actual error range of some glucose test strips and meters is much greater than 20% in my experience. Every day, people are told make precise insulin and diet choices based on glucose test readings. Yet, WITH SUCH HIGH ERROR ranges in the meter readings, you could run dangerous lows below 50 and the meter could be falsely telling you that your levels were safely higher. Driving with dangerous lows can be a big risk to the safety of everyone on the road.
I'm 70 years old and I have
I'm 70 years old and I have diabetes 2 the reading on the meter was 70 do I need to take an insulin shot?
Meter accuracy?????
It will be two weeks on Tuesday when I was diagnosed. My doctor scheduled an educational class where I was given and shown how to use a meter. For a little over a week, I have used the meter, kept a log and gave the information to my doctor on the next visit. He made an adjustment to increase my insulin.
However, my insurance, required me to switch to different brand of meter. When I received the new meter and took my first test reading yesterday morning. I was shocked. WOW, it was higher. So, I re-tested. It was higher a few more points. I re-check with my orginal meter and the reading was consistant with my week long readings.
I called the maker of the 2nd meter and was told "Do not compare readings with another meter!!!" Also, "meter reading can be off by 30%". So I asked the rep if the meter reads 80, it could really be 56? (That's 30%) He basically would not answer that question.
Hey, I'm new to all this, but a 30% inaccuracy is "NUTS". Can you imagine the speedometer on you car being off by 30%. How about the gas station pump off by the same percentage. I'll pay for the test strips, but is there a reasonably accraate accurate meter out there?
The new MyGlucoHealth
The new MyGlucoHealth glucometer is more accurate: http://www.myglucometer.com/blog/Gluco-Health-News
Thanks!
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