Choosing a Blood Glucose Meter
By Spollett, Geralyn R.; Diabetes Self-Management, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 99-106Publication Date: July/August 2003
Article provides advice for people with diabetes on choosing the right blood glucose meter, which can increase the user’s willingness to monitor blood glucose levels, and increase their understanding of the monitoring results. A list of questions is provided to help the consumer identify his or her individual needs, and improvements to monitoring technology are discussed. Two meters from LifeScan, the OneTouch Profile and the OneTouch UltraSmart can prompt the user to eat a snack if hypoglycemia is detected or to check for ketones if the blood glucose level is above a set value. Another meter, the Precision Xtra from Abbott Laboratories, is a dual-function meter that accepts ketone test strips, allowing the user to check for ketones in the blood, rather than testing a urine sample. For people who are blind or have low vision, voice output meters are available, such as the Accu-Chek VoiceMate from Roche Diagnostics. For people with fine motor disabilities, the Ascensia DEX2 from Bayer and the Accu-Chek Compact from Roche Diagnostics both eliminate the need to unwrap and handle individual test strips; instead, they are loaded with a disk or a drum containing ten or seventeen strips, respectively, which are ejected individually at each check. The FreeStyle Tracker from TheraSense allows people to monitor blood glucose using a Handspring Visor personal digital assistant monitor that automatically stores all data in an electronic logbook. The OneTouch UltraSmart from LifeScan automatically stores the date and time of each blood glucose reading. For people who experience difficulty with diabetes despite frequent monitoring, the Continuous Glucose Monitoring System from Medtronic MiniMed allows the detection of trends that may require medication adjustment that otherwise might go unnoticed. The GlucoWatch from Cygnus serves a similar purpose, as it provides automatic readings as often as every ten minutes for up to thirteen hours. A table of commercially available monitors is included in the article.
Assistive Products Discussed: GLUCOWATCH G2 BIOGRAPHER
ACCU-CHEK VOICEMATE SYSTEM
LIFESCAN ONE TOUCH II BLOOD GLUCOSE MONITORING SYSTEM
ACCU-CHEK III DIABETES CARE KIT
LIFESCAN PROFILE GLUCOSE MONITORING SYSTEM
ACCU-CHEK EASY DIABETIC CARE KIT
ONETOUCH ULTRASMART BLOOD GLUCOSE MONITOR
ACCU-CHEK COMPACT PLUS METER SYSTEM
Published by: R.A. Rapaport Publishing, Incorporated (Website:http://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com)
