What you need to know about Glucose Meters

By >> Jay Tee

Glucose Meters

When people with diabetes can control their blood sugar (glucose), they are more likely to stay healthy. People with diabetes use two kinds of management devices: glucose meters and other diabetes management tests. Glucose meters help people with diabetes check their blood sugar at home, school, work, and play. Other blood and urine tests reveal trends in diabetes management and help identify diabetes complications

Self-Monitoring of Blood Glucose

To test for glucose with a typical glucose meter, place a small sample of blood on a disposable "test strip" and place the strip in the meter. The test strips are coated with chemicals (glucose oxidase, dehydrogenase, or hexokinase) that combine with glucose in blood. The meter measures how much glucose is present. Meters do this in different ways. Some measure the amount of electricity that can pass through the sample. Others measure how much light reflects from it. The meter displays the glucose level as a number. Several new models can record and store a number of test results. Some models can connect to personal computers to store test results or print them out.

Choosing a Glucose Meter

At least 25 different meters are commercially available.

They differ in several ways including:

    > Amount of blood needed for each test

    > Testing speed

    > Overall size

    > Ability to store test results in memory

    > Cost of the meter

    > Cost of the test strips used