Alpha Trak vs. ReliOn Micro?

Hi, All -

I was wondering if anyone knows if anyone in FDMB has done a comparison of the ReliOn Micro with the Alpha Trak?

I have been using the Alpha Trak on Bear for almost 3 years, but the test strips prices have become challenging. I have done searches and I have read many threads here saying the human meters are fine, but things like this have kept me from switching:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term ... %20glucose

I think that I read somewhere that the Tilly protocol was developed using human meters, but I am concerned now because I have based all of Bear's treatment on the Alpha Trak for so long that I fear that switching at this point might cause kookiness.

Anyway, if anyone has compared the two (specifically the ReliOn Micro and the Alpha Trak), can you please point me to the thread?

Thanks!

 

That significance level mentioned in the abstract indicates quite a large level of significance. But I do wonder some things though, that might be answered by reading the full article. What was the difference found and significance of that difference in numbers above 300, between 150 and 300, and again below 150? I think from experience we would find a low level of significance of the differences between 150 and 300, probably a high significant difference value above 300, and we already know that human meters read lower at the very low numbers (below 80) which is why there are two sets of numbers to go by on the Tilly protocol for lowering the dose on the L's.

The Tilly protocol accounts for these differences, so there should be no worries about using a human meter vs. the Alphatrac. When it comes to the very high numbers, we are looking more for trends there rather than exact numbers anyway.

 

Thanks, Kelly - yes, I have heard the same thing about the differences being more substantial in the higher and lower numbers. I guess I am concerned that I won't know if Bear requires a higher dose because the meter might be consistently reading lower than his actual BG, eg. meter says 100 but he is really 160, etc...

Just went and purchased a ReliOn Micro - I decided that I am just going to do a comparison myself (if he will tolerate it) for the next few days and see how it all shakes out. Thanks for the response.

 

I bet a lot of other people will be interested in the comparison. Do post your results when you have them!

 

Here's the first result - I just tested Bear for PMPS:

Alpha Trak: 85
ReliOn Micro: 56

I will continue to compare for the next few cycles (I'll put the results on my spreadsheet)

 

That looks about right based off of the Tilly protocol numbers of lowering the dose if kitty goes lower than 80 for the AT or 50 on a human meter.

 

Feel free to take a look at my spreadsheet. I abandoned the Alphatrak after about a month... the cost was high, it was inconvenient to have to worry about always having strips on hand, and it was always a challenge to make sure people advising us on low numbers understood that the Alphatrak numbers were higher. There are a few days of comparison on my spreadsheet with the Relion Confirm (uses the same strips as the Micro). In general, I found that for lower numbers, there was usually around a 30 point difference.

Good luck!

 

Thanks, Christie - I looked at your spreadsheet, but I can only find where you compared the Advocate and the ReliOn. Can you tell me which dates you compared the Alpha Trak and the ReliOn? I wasn't able to find it.

eta: 2 typos