Blood glucose monitoring is a crucial part of diabetes treatment, and accurate self-monitoring is key to good blood glucose control. An accurate blood glucose value provides guidance and reference for both doctors and patients regarding medication and health maintenance. To implement accurate blood glucose monitoring, the first step is to choose a high-precision blood glucose meter. Choosing a high-precision blood glucose meter should start from the following two aspects:
First: Check the "quality" of the blood glucose meter itself.
According to experts from the Guangdong Provincial Institute of Pharmaceutical Research, the quality of the instrument should be understood through five steps.
Step 1: Check if the quality is guaranteed. Check if the blood glucose meter has been certified by authoritative institutions such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the European Union (CE). Such blood glucose meters have guaranteed quality.
Step 2: Check the ease of use of the blood glucose meter. The fewer the operation steps of the blood glucose meter, the less error caused by improper operation.
Step 3: Pay attention to the pain of blood sampling. Choose a blood glucose meter that requires a small amount of blood and can be used at multiple sites. Less pain reduces the patient's fear of blood sampling, avoids emotional fluctuations, and results in higher measurement accuracy.
Step 4: Understand the measurement principle of the blood glucose meter. Traditional optical blood glucose meters have probes exposed to air, making them easily contaminated and requiring regular inspection, cleaning, and maintenance. However, blood glucose meters using bioelectrochemical methods do not require frequent cleaning and maintenance.
Step 5: Finally, understand the technology used in the test strips. First, the technology by which the test strip reacts chemically with blood glucose. For example, test strips using glucose dehydrogenase technology are less prone to oxidation by oxygen in the air, resulting in less interference during storage and use. Second, the technology by which the test strip activates the instrument. Previously, even with insufficient blood sample, the blood glucose meter would activate, leading to inaccurate results. Patients should choose test strips with the feature of "no activation if insufficient blood sample."
