[BobbyT]

I just recently got all my rocks in the same pile and started testing. I use an accu-chek advantage and also have 2 ascentia contour meters. The contours usually read within a few points of each other but the accu-chek usually reads about 10-12 ponts higher.
I read somewhere that accu-chek is a plasma reading and the ascentia gives a whole blood reading. If this is correct, which reading is closer to the reading I would get from the lab as in A1c?

[JediSkipdogg]

An A1C is generally measured in Plasma so you would want the accu-check meter for comparing an A1C.

[BobbyT]

Thanks for the info.

[JediSkipdogg]

Meters use to only be able to read whole blood. So an A1C use to be different than a meter. Then they made meters that read both, which was a nightmare if you got it on the wrong setting somehow and didn't realize it. Then they finally started coming out with Plasma only meters, which I think is what most new ones are.

[LI_Beach_Girl]

It is my understanding that the Ascencia Contour and the Ascencia Breeze both give plasma readings. I use the Contour at home and the Breeze I leave at work.

[Harold]

Bobby you are trying to compare different types of apples to an orange. Believe the plasma meters will give reading somewhere around 10 to 15 percent higher than whole blood meters. The meters give a quantity of glucose per volume. As in milli grams per deca liter or in millimohs per liter. The HbA1c reading is given as a percentage of glucose that red blood cells are made up of. There are equivalency charts that you can use to equate 90 or 120 day meter averages to an A1c, but that onlyl gets you in the ball park. Individual meter reading do not equate to A1c's.

My own personal experience using my meter reading averages equivlant to A1c runs about 0.3% to 0.5% lower on average compared to an actual A1c.

[BobbyT]

Thanks folks.
I guess what I really was trying to figure out was why the contours were 10-12 points lower than the accu-chek but if they both give a plasma reading then I like the contours reading a lot better

Harold.....I'm always trying to compare apples and oranges, never know when you might come up peaches.