Per an MD's recommendation, I bought the Aviva and its expensive strips, and decided to see how accurate it was. So on same finger - same blood sample these are the results while on Metformin er

 

              Aviva                                     Micro Relion

4pm      107                                        133 (!) (haven't eaten since 12 noon - 21 gm carbs)

4:01      119                                        112

 

ran out of blood - so same finger, new puncture:

 

4:04      115                                       122

 

so since I didn't wipe off the first reading (i guess it was too serous) the first reading was 107 with the Aviva, but same sample, more blood - it was 133 on the Relion. The MD had been saying that the Relion was not accurate in that it was too low. Hmmm.

So, the Aviva had a 12 point difference, and the Micro relion had a 21 point spread. wow.

Did other people get the same results?

 

 

Tags: ?, Any, Aviva, accurate, find, more, other, people, relion, than

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Anthony thanks for that info! Your archery imagery is very vivid and memorable. Yes, I was measuring precision - and the well known MD that I called was the one who recommended the Aviva as compared to the lab standard. He said that the Relion was not accurate, saying it lacked precision, that is- the number of similar readings at the same time. Hmm, I guess I will go with the MD's suggestion for now - but I will be rechecking my BG in 4 hrs, and that should be a frightening thing - since I just made coconut flour pancakes which supposedly does not raise the BG too much - but the amount of syrup - even if sugar free - well - like I said, the numbers will probably be a frightening thing. Thanks for your info again.
JohnG is right about testing using the same finger.

I took several different meters to measure against a lab sample (not A1c). Though, that wasn't exactly a fair test because the lab used venous blood, but best I could do. Went with the one that was closest, which happened to be the Aviva.
Wow - this is such important info - thank you so much Gerri - it is nice to know that your serum glucose was closely matched with the Aviva. Well - perhaps there is more accuracy involved in a larger blood sample? Thanks again Gerri - such good info!
Actually, I have no idea:) The tech who took the sample gave me a long explanation about why she couldn't test doing a finger stick, but I can't recall what she said. Maybe someone here knows the answer.

The Aviva tested higher than the One Touch I was using & also higher than FreeStyle when I used them for comparison. Wish any of them were accurate! The +- 20% margin of error is unacceptable.
Oh Gerri - what I meant by the larger blood sample is that the Aviva takes like 0.6 micro or something, whereas the micro relion only takes 0.3. so you don't have to push on your finger os much..
The rest of your info was also helpful too. I also liked your entry on the 3 word game - it was hilarious - I think yours were something like over naked body???! ha ha funny!
Sorry, I misunderstood. Good question about the relative size of the samples. When I was showed how to test, the nurse said to never drop the blood on the strip. Who in the world gets enough blood to pour it on a strip!

Glad you liked my entry:) Yep, naked bodies.
If a meter lacks precision is is a pain but it still can be more accurate than one with better precision. Aviva I don't like it reads consistently high and makes your bg control look worst than it is and as a result I inject too much insulin and have become grotesquely obese.
Anthony - I am sorry to hear that about Aviva and the effect on the amount of your insulin use. I'm afraid I am not very familiar with the intricacies and complexities of insulin use -but it seems something between the numbers you are getting and the insulin response just does not work that well - is this a common thing for insulin users? Please bear with me if this is a rude sort of question - I ams o new to the insulin diabetes thing that I may not know if I am being offensive in my questions. I certainly hope that your current meter is more appropriate use for you and that your insulin usage is appropriate for your situation.
Contour I have also reads high I suspect. To counter this I do not measure as often and inject the insulin on a time basis instead of based on measurements.
Yes, for a while I saw a spread like that but right now I'm getting practically the same number of retest with my Accu-Chek Aviva. It helps to keep your strips from bad weather, but FDA only requires them to withing 30%. As a person who sees numbers from 20 to 600 and has to take the right amount of insulin to deal with them, I still find the numbers worthwhile, but I'm not sure I'd bother to test if I my numbers were in a tighter range.

The Aviva has more filters in its strips- it's less affected by things like people's vitamin C levels, or their hydration status, that sort of thing, which it measures and corrects for.
Jonah - thanks for the info that Aviva has more filters in its strips that is good to know - in fact this a.m. I just checked my fasting (before Metformin ER) and it was 113 for the Aviva and 117 for the Micro relion.. YOur info is very valuable and I will store it soemwhere in my brain for later use. Thanks again for your participation in this discussion.
The whole test strip accuracy thing is a travesty in my opinion. And I am mincing my words. The meters have only been required to be accurate to +/- 20%, a terrible level of accuracy, especially if you are dosing insulin based on those readings. The FDA is looking at tightening things up, but I would be absolutely shocked if we saw a home meter with +/- 5% accuracy.

That being said, Dr. B currently recommends the Aviva based on his testing. In my experience, even repeatability in current strips is generally not within 10%, as further evidenced by your tests.

In the end, I decided that chasing the best meter was not going to gain me much. What would gain me a lot was properly controlling the variables that I found that distorted my readings. I wash my Finger Under Test (FUT), I'll not squeeze the FUT to avoid getting a bunch of plasma (some people use the second drop), never let the test strips get too cold or too hot, and never ever leave them exposed to humd air, etc.

I always bring my meter for fasting blood sugar draws and compare my meter reading with the Lab. My OneTouch has had a good correspondance (+/- 10%).

ps. Precision is actually a measure of the smallest difference which is reported, commonly denoted in science and engineering by the significant digits reported, which for basically all these meters is precision of +/ 0.5 mg/dl. If the meter read 98.1 mg/dl, then the precision would be implied to be 0.05 mg/dl.

pps. Accuracy on the other hand is a measure of the variability around the true value. Since we don't know the true value here, we can be fooled into thinking these meters are good when they are actually all cr*p and your blood sugar is really 200 mg/dl.

ppps. Did I mention that home meter accuracy is a travesty and I think they are cr*p?

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