Riva Greenberg: Why Can't Meters Tell Me My Blood Sugar?

The 72nd American Diabetes Association scientific session took place a few weeks ago.

More than 16,000 medical professionals, scientists, researchers, pharma industry representatives and some well-versed patients attended.

The exhibition hall boasted one of the largest displays of new-to-market, and coming-to-market devices, technologies and other products to make managing diabetes easier, safer and more precise.

But I, and you, are still checking our blood sugar on a glucose meter that's allowed to be anywhere within 20 percent of the laboratory standard 95 percent of the time.

What that means is when my meter says my blood sugar is 145 mg/dl (8 mmol/l) it might be -- or, given the up to plus or minus 20 percent, it might be 113 mg/dl (6.2 mmol/l) or 173 mg/dl (9.6 mmol/l), or anywhere in between.

In 2010 the FDA wrote, "Glucose meters are increasingly being used to achieve tight glycemic control despite the fact that these devices have not been approved for this use." The article goes on to say that patients at home and those in clinical settings are using glucose meters that have not been approved as safe and effective.

Nearly 26 million people have diabetes in the U.S. Nearly 80 million have pre-diabetes. While they don't all use meters, meter accuracy is not limited to a small, exceptional group. Since within 10 years most people with pre-diabetes will go on to get Type 2 diabetes, meter accuracy will grow to affect up to a third of the nation.

So while manufacturers keep adding bells and whistles to meters, and we're on the launch pad for an artificial pancreas -- where accuracy will be even more critical -- why don't I have a meter that gives me an accurate reading of my blood sugar?

Think about it: would you buy a scale that's 20 percent off? Your 145 pounds on the scale might really be 113, 127, 165 or 173 pounds, or anywhere in between. Would you drive a car whose speedometer gave the speed up to plus or minus 20 miles per hour? How useful would a watch be that was sometimes too fast and sometimes too slow and you didn't know when it was which?

Six to 10 times a day when I check my blood sugar, I'm making a decision to either eat more calories -- eating sugar if my blood sugar's too low, to bring it up -- or take more insulin if my blood sugar's too high, to bring it down. And that, my friend, can be a life-threatening action if I'm basing it on faulty numbers.

To minimize some worry, you should know that the governing body, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), states that the rate of allowable accuracy on your meter must be within 15 percent of the laboratory standard when your blood sugar is lower than 75 mg/dl. But still...

Variance Meter to Meter
Not only do we not know how off the mark our meter readings are, testing your numbers on one meter next to another will drive you mad. Different meters give you different results, almost a different range of results.

Last month at a pre-launch press meeting at Sanofi, I got an iBGStar meter. I've been using Bayer's ContourUSB meter for the last two or three years, so I immediately checked my blood sugar on both meters. For the sake of these lists being difficult to read, here are the results in the U.S. mg/dl value:

2012-06-25-firsttest.png

I checked twice more over the next day and in each case my ContourUSB showed I was 20-25 points lower than the iBGStar.

Fascinated, I wanted to check on more meters. I had a VerioIQ and Freestyle Lite meter at home and ordered a Freestyle Freedom Lite meter.

Here are my results from eight checks of my blood sugar at the same moment, same finger, using the same drop of blood. (I only checked on Freestyle Freedom Lite twice because it arrived toward the end of my testing.)

2012-06-25-Screenshot20120625at11.44.24AM.png

Here's another thing that happened when I checked, and then checked again a minute later:

2012-06-25-moretests.png

So if you check twice in a row on the same meter you won't necessarily get the same result.

I've been told the only way to know if your meter is accurate is to check your blood sugar on your meter when you're having it drawn for a lab test and compare when the lab test result comes back. I did this two weeks ago. The number on my ContourUSB was 115 mg/dl (6.3 mmol/l). The lab came back with 139 mg/dl (7.7 mmol/l).

While I titled this post "Why Can't Meters Tell Me My Blood Sugar?" I plan to do a second post on "Why Meters Can't Tell Me My Blood Sugar" if that's the case. I want to find out what is at the root of meter readings and disparities and what manufacturers are doing about it.

For now, I've been told the reason for accuracy distortion is largely the interplay between the strip and the meter. Plus a host of other variables like the calibration of the meter, dirt on the meter or strip, what's in your blood from medications you may be taking, what's on your fingers from what you last ate and environmental conditions like climate and altitude.

Here's my plea to the FDA, government, pharma and health insurance companies -- with all the new gizmos and cool designed products, which I applaud, let's also get our priorities straight. When 1 in 20 people with diabetes die from low blood sugar, why are we dragging our feet on getting our meters accurate? What are we waiting for?

So what's your experience? Have you checked on different meters?

Do you think one meter is more accurate than the others? Why?

Have you compared checking your blood sugar on your meter with the hospital standard lab draw?

Have you switched meters and then found you have to get used to new numbers?

On a personal note I want to say to those of us who live with diabetes and constantly feel we are judged by our numbers -- our health care providers judge us, our family may judge us and we judge ourselves -- we really don't know what our numbers are. Plus no matter how hard we work at keeping our blood sugar in our target range, there are other forces at work -- stress, illness, the 20 percent margin of error the FDA allows food manufacturers on food nutrition labels -- that we can't always have the numbers we'd like. Let's try to remember that each time we check our blood sugar and when we do get meter accuracy.

Riva speaks to patients and health care providers about flourishing with diabetes and is the author of "50 Diabetes Myths That Can Ruin Your Life and the 50 Diabetes Truths That Can Save It" and "The ABC's Of Loving Yourself With Diabetes." She is finishing her third book, "Diabetes Dos & How-Tos due out this fall. Visit her website DiabetesStories.com.

For more by Riva Greenberg, click here.

For more on diabetes, click here.

?

?

?

Follow Riva Greenberg on Twitter: www.twitter.com/diabetesmyths

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

jim rome ufc on fox 2 weigh ins brandi glanville convulsions john tyler chuck elisabeth hasselbeck

Greek Finance Minister Resigns Just Days After Appointment ...

This has to be a record:

  • GREEK FINANCE MINISTER RAPANOS RESIGNS; PRIME MINISTER ACCEPTS

This is the same guy who was appointed last week, and who fainted after seeking the official Greek numbers. In fact we are not sure he ever got an official appointment. And elsewhere:

  • CYPRUS REQUESTS EU AID
  • CYPRUS SEEKS EXTERNAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FROM EURO AREA: China just said NEIN

Prepare the bath salt firehose.

Repanos: we hardly knew thee. Courtesy of William Banzai, this is what happened when Rapanos...

...saw the inside of the Greek Finance Ministry:

Your rating: None Average: 4.9 (21 votes)

rob gronkowski kim richards robert hegyes mary louise parker mary louise parker cher morgellons

Frank Gehry's Tiffany Chess Set Is a Miniature Architectural Marvel [Games]

Architect Frank Gehry is best known for his curvaceous buildings like the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA, or the other Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. But he was also recently commissioned by Tiffany & Co. to create this funky chess set which looks like a tiny Gehry-inspired cityscape. More »


houston weather dwyane wade magic mike trailer the night they drove old dixie down levon oklahoma city bombing robbie robertson

Switched On: Big kicks not all for starters

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

Image

The end of last week's Switched On left doubt for the future of dedicated devices that tread on the turf of smartphones. After all, funding is key to every major new product initiative and, despite the vast fortunes of many Silicon Valley engineers that have been accumulated via IPOs and acquisitions, few wish to take on the risk of fronting a new consumer device themselves.(In 2007, the handheld FlipStart PC was hatched from FlipStart Labs, funded by Vulcan Ventures, the investment arm of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.)

Most venture capitalists abhor the device business; it is a rare device that makes it to the spotlight of startup debutante balls such as DEMO, TechCrunch Disrupt, or Launch. Even most of the 94 companies at CES' Eureka Park were not developing end-user devices Where, then, can a device entrepreneur go for funding and pick up some publicity in the process?

Continue reading Switched On: Big kicks not all for starters

Switched On: Big kicks not all for starters originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 Apr 2012 17:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments


lottery winners april fools day pranks ohio state vs kansas daniel von bargen the beach blood diamond 8 bit google maps

Yahoo Says Patents Facebook Bought Were Just To Countersue, Lack Good Faith, Should Be Thrown Out

Facebook Vs Yahoo Boxing LogoCounter-countersuit! Yahoo today claimed that the patents Facebook is countering its original patent infringement lawsuit against the social network with "were acquired by Facebook for purposes of retaliation", and therefore violate the U.S. Patent Office's "Duty of Disclosure, Candor, and Good Faith"?and should be diregarded by the court. Yahoo also claims Facebook couldn't legally know enough about its business to know if it was violating Facebook's patents, that several of Facebook's new patents were illegally filed, and Yahoo also filed two more advertising patent infringement claims against Facebook. Facebook responds that "We remain perplexed by Yahoo's erratic actions. We disagree with these latest claims and we will continue to defend ourselves vigorously." If a court agrees that Facebook can't countersue with patents bought specifically for the countersuit, Facebook could be left wide-open in settlement negotiations, and might have to pay Yahoo a hefty sum of cash and/or stock.

new jersey plane crash kobe bryant wife bonjovi dead sam shepard sam shepard johnny knox johnny knox

Adafruit wants to help you hack your Raspberry Pi

Image

So you shelled out a cool $25 to get your hands on the Raspberry Pi -- and, after some hiccups, the thing actually shipped. Now what? Adafruit's got your back. The DIY-friendly company announced that it's getting ready to release its Prototyping Pi Plate Kit, which will help you leverage the little Linux box for some of those home-baked embedded computer projects you're itching to start. Nothing yet in the way of pricing or availability for the product -- not until Adafruit's done testing it on shipping Raspberry Pi units. In the meantime, you can always add it to your hacking wish list by clicking the source link below.

Adafruit wants to help you hack your Raspberry Pi originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceAdafruit  | Email this | Comments

i robot the big c the visitor king of kings ostara andy kaufman masters 2012

Sarah Michelle Gellar: Pregnant with Second Child!


A hearty round of congratulations are in order for Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr.: the couple is expecting its second child!

"She and Freddie are thrilled," a friend of Gellar and Prinze tells Us Weekly. "They're amazing parents."

Sarah Michelle Gellar Photograph

The famous twosome met while filming the classic 1997 thriller I Know What You Did Last Summer, but didn't start dating until three years later. They then married in September 2002 and welcomed daughter Charlotte Grace in September 2009.

The news of Gellar's pregnancy arrives just as The CW is figuring out the fate of her latest series, Ringer - and let's just say the beautiful mother will likely have a lot of free time ahead of her to spend with a new baby.

occupy congress juan williams victor martinez alcatraz cruise ship martin luther king jr. zappos

This Avatar Android Will Perform Life-Threatening Work on the ISS [Video]

There are certain areas of the International Space Station that most astronauts would rather not visit—like the exterior. But sometimes, somebody has to clamber around out there, looking for hull cracks. That's when the ISS calls on Russia's SAR-400 telepresence assist-droid. More »


how to cook a turkey yorkshire pudding larry the cable guy miracle on 34th street santa tracker monkey bread letter from santa