As you know, patients with diabetes must monitor their blood glucose levels on a daily basis – to exercise self-control. For this, modern devices have been developed that make it very easy and simple to make a diabetes test at home.
These devices are called blood glucose meters . Today, there are various modifications of devices for measuring blood sugar, many of which are registered in Russia. These include such glucometers as Satellite (Russia), Elite (Germany), Glucotrend 2 (Germany), iChek, Esprit (Germany), Gluokea (Hungary), Accuchek-active (Germany), Smart Skene (USA), OneTachSelectSimple (USA) ), Supremm (England), Contour TS, CheckmatePlas (USA), Exectech (USA), Glucochrome M (Russia), Medicine (USA), Clover Check.
All of the above devices are simple and reliable to use. This means that a patient of any age can easily learn to work with them. Modern glucometers allow you to get an accurate blood sugar reading at home in less than one minute at any time of the day.
Let’s take a closer look at how to use the meter.
In order to measure the blood glucose level, the patient must first receive a small drop of blood (only 2-5 μl). This can be done almost painlessly with a special finger-piercing pen (most often sold with the device). Next, the resulting drop of blood must be applied to the strip inserted into the meter. The puncture is best done on the lateral surface of the fingertip – this place has the least number of nerve endings and it is there that the microvessels are located.
It is not necessary to wipe the skin of the finger with alcohol before puncturing. Since a short rubbing with alcohol will still not help to completely disinfect the skin, but it will make it very dry. In addition, frequent contact with alcohol damages the skin, and alcohol itself is capable of destroying the reagents on the test strips.How to use the glucometer is taught in specialized service centers for glucometers, as well as in special medical stores that have the status of a service center, and in diabetes schools. Modern models of glucometers from foreign manufacturers are equipped with systems that prevent errors in measurement: blood volume sensors, thermal sensors, test strip code sensors. But if a person is not trained to use the meter correctly, then he simply can spoil a certain number of test strips, the cost of which is often far from small. Therefore, such training from specialists should not be neglected, especially since some of the features and practical subtleties of self-monitoring of glucose in the blood are simply not reflected in the technical instructions for the glucometer. For example, it does not indicate how to prick a finger correctly, the use of which antiseptics is allowed for self-control, what is the difference in measurements between different models of glucometers and a lot of subtle points that can affect the assessment of the measurement result.