A Blood Glucose Test Strip is usually a plastic strip embeds with chemicals that will cause a reaction when they come in contact with the glucose in your blood. A glucose meter is able to measure this reaction and generate the result in a numeric form that represents the level of glucose in your blood and displays it. The numeric result can be presented either in mg/dl (milligrams per decilitre) or mmol/l (millimoles per litre).

A Blood Glucose Test Strip is disposable and should only be used once. It is an essential component when coming to blood glucose testing. Without it, a glucose meter will be totally unusable. Hence it is always essential to ensure a continuous supply of non-expired test strips.

Where To Purchase And Price Range :

A typical Blood Glucose Meter usually come with 10 - 20 Test Strips (as bundled) for FREE. Test Strips can also be purchased separately in multiples of 50 or 100 with price varies, either online (shipping costs incurred) or directly from any medical store.

Important :

To ensure accurate measurement, it is strongly recommended that you should use glucose test strips that are recommended for the particular make and model of glucose meter you are using. Make sure you read the owners manual that comes with your meter for this.

More Information :

- In June 2008, the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) reported that some patients were using LifeScan OneTouch Ultra test strips with Abbott Precision Xtra meters which resulted in false and misleading low glucose readings. Read more information here.

- A Blood Glucose Test Strip is not the same as Pregnancy Test Strip nor Urine Test Strip.

Yes, there is! A Talking Blood Glucose Meter is a specialized glucose meter that is designed for the blind or low-visioned diabetics without any assistance. In short, it walks the patient through the blood glucose testing process with audible (talking) step by step instructions and provides the test results through voice too. Such meters are totally audible and are “Auto-code” (No-Coding required) which means lesser steps and lower chances of false results due to coding error.

How It Works Actually?

Users simply inserts the test strip from the top of the meter. The meter will be automatically turned on and he or she will then be guided through the testing steps with voice prompts. Test results will be heard after 6 seconds with time and date as well as any memory or error code. The best part is, if any voice message is not heard properly at any step, the user can easily press a button to repeat the last message or test results again.

Another distinguished feature of this meter is the design of the buttons. Its tactile feature allows visually-impaired users to feel and locate the different buttons easily. Buttons also come with raised imprint to allow users to feel and identify them with ease.

Other Features :

• Lesser blood sample needed (0.6 micro-liter drop of blood) means finer gauge lancets to significantly reduce your pain which testing.
• Alternate site testing other than finger tips (eg. palms, forearms or upper arms etc).

Example :

Prodigy AutoCode Talking Flash Glucode Meter

A Continuous Blood Glucose Meter is basically an FDA-approved device and commonly used by diabetes health care team, to measure and record your blood glucose levels through the day and night, and provide the average result for 3 to 7 days, while you continue your daily activities at home.

How It Works?

• A tiny glucose sensing device (known as “sensor”) will be inserted either 45-degree or 90-degree under the skin of your abdomen to measure your glucose level in the tissue every 10 seconds.
• Result will be sent to a pager-sized device (known as “monitor”) which is usually attached to your belly. An average glucose value will be recorded every 5 mins.
• Calibration will take place at different times of the day eg. every 12 hours and you can also record other information like any insulin taken, meals or snacks consumed, or exercise done, into the monitor.
• After the monitoring period, the sensor will then be removed by your diabetes health care team and all information stored will be downloaded into the computer for analysis. Results can be presented in graphs or charts that can help to reveal patterns of glucose fluctuations. Necessary adjustments will then be made to your diabetes management plan if needed.

Price Range :

• Estimated cost of around $800 - $1400 for the transmitter, receiver, charger and casing.
• Estimated cost of $35 per 3-day sensor or $60 per 7-day sensor.

Note(s) :

This type of Blood Glucose Meter is not intended to replace standard blood glucose monitoring but more for capturing continuous results (eg. every 5 mins for up to 72 hours) to analyze for any trend in glucose levels and work out a more effective treatment plan for diabetes patients.

A Blood Glucose Meter is primarily used for testing our blood to monitor our glucose level. However, there are other purposes too. Understanding the different purposes gives you better ideas of how to use a glucose meter more effectively.

What Are The Purposes Of Glucose Meter?

1. Monitor Quality Of Insulin

Sometimes, your insulin might be long expired and you may not know or the expiry date wasn’t clearly indicated on the packaging. Hence if you are taking insulin regularly yet your blood glucose level seems to behave abnormally, it could be a problem with the insulin and you should either verify them with your health care provider and purchase new ones immediately.

2. Monitor And Adjust Your Insulin Dosage

You can check your blood glucose level many times a day and observe for any abnormality or consistent pattern over a period of time. Example, if your glucose level went too high on every morning consistently over the entire week, you may consult your health care provider if you should take extra or lesser insulin during the morning time to increase or lower your blood glucose and avoid health risk.

3. Understand The Effects Of The Food And Portion Choices

Certain glucose meters with food monitoring feature allow you to manage your glucose level before and after each meal and provide you with the average results over a period of time. You shall be able to understand the effects of your food and portion choices and decide whether you should avoid certain food choice or consume lesser portion where necessary.

You may like to consult your diabetes educator for more information on the purposes of a blood glucose meter too.

This “wrist watch” version of Blood Glucose Meter, also known as GlucoWatch, is a new technology glucose testing product that will test your blood glucose through fluid drawn from under your skin with electrodes, rather than your blood itself. The process is painless.

How It Works?

A GlucoWatch depend on a skin pad that adhere to the skin, and measure your blood glucose using electric current. When your blood glucose goes too high or low, an alarm will sound off.

Key Features :

• Readings can be generally taken up to 3 times an hour. Certain models of GlucoWatch can take as frequent as every 10 minutes.
  
• Skin-pad can be worn as long as 13 hours yet need to be changed periodically.
• Ideal for pregnant women who want to catch low blood glucose that occurs during the night.

Note(s) :

• A new calibration is required whenever a new skin-pad is replaced which should be every 12 hours.

Update :