Alpha Trak vs ReliOn Micro Meter

I took Little One to the vet today for a check. He tested his BC with his Alpha Trak and it was 217. I brought my meter along and did a test as well and mine came up at 94. I knew the animal meters read higher than human, but I am surprised it was that much different.

 

I have one of each and use the Alpha as my regular meter. At higher numbers, the Alpha tested as mush as 80 points higher than the Relion but we're talking in the 300s. At the lower numbers it's more like 30 points. If you go to Ruby's spreadsheet in my signature, there are tabs for Alpha and Relion, You can see some comparisons I did.

The numbers you got seem like a really big spread, though.

 

I did the same thing with my vet's Alpha Trak, and my ReliOn was only THREE points lower. It's too bad there can't be closer readings globally.

 

Was it the same blood sample for both meters? Were the blood samples put on the meters one right after the other or was there a time lag between them?

It is odd for them to be that off. 80 points could be variance in the meter + the expected 30 point calibration difference, but not 120 points.

 

I use the relion ultima and tested it against the vets alpha on a curve day. Same drop of blood, one right after the other. My results were a few points up to 18 Points different. Sometime mine was higher, sometimes the Alpha was.

 

One thing about the Relion meters that I noticed (if you have a Confirm or a Micro), is that if for some reason it doesn't suck up quite enough blood, it will give you a low reading instead of an error message. When I saw a weirdly low number and suspected that the blood sample sucked in was small, I always tested immediately again afterwards twice. Sure enough, I'd find the second two numbers would be more what I expected and close to each other. This didn't happen too often, but it did happen.

I would also check and make sure the meter itself is reading correctly. If you call the company, you can get some control solution or you can test your own blood and see if the accuracy is off. It's also possible the vet's meter was off--I would ask how often they check it with control solution as well. With that big a difference, one of the meters is likely off.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

We did use the same blood sample and it was within a minute or two.

There could have been an issue with not taking in a large enough sample. He was dispensing the blood out of a syringe so it was a little difficult to get the meter and needle lined up just right.

I will contact ReliOn and get a control sample to check my meters accuracy.