Freestyle Lite Meter Comparison at Low Numbers

i've noticed there's been quite a bit of discussion about the discrepancies found with the Freestyle Lite meter in higher ranges. we've always known the Freestyle brand meters run lower than other meters in higher ranges. however, in the past i've found the Freestyle Lite to be pretty darn accurate in the low range (green). the recent discussion prompted me to begin a new comparison with my old Freestyle (very old - don't know if they're still making it), the Freestyle Freedom, and the Freestyle Lite in the low range (under 100).

my recent comparison showed the Freestyle Lite was averaging a consistent difference of about 20 points lower than the Freestyle and the Freestyle Freedom in greens. i don't know if Abbott changed something or what, but this is not the same result i had found when i first started using the Freestyle Lite.

i feel comfortable going forward with my Freestyle and Freestyle Freedom meters.

just sharing...

 

Hi, Jill! Good to see you

We have become the new breed of meter maids! :lol:

 

Very good to see you Jill. hoping things are going well with your DH!

Ah..FS discussion! I have been working with Abbott, my endocrinologist and my insurance company on all FS issues. They are going to be checking my meters and strips and my Dr. is working on getting me a different meter, for myself of course. The problem with the FS, newer model, is that it reads lower for all ranges but the "green" range is totally acceptable and my Dr. said even preferable for those who have a problem going too low. It is the higher ranges, blue and up, that are way off in accuracy and those do become a problem for both felines and humans. I will keep all posted on what Abbott determines is the problem. They are taking this very seriously as I have had some changes with my bi yearly HbA1c's which are going up after years of being normal. That comes from not having an accurate meter to make corrections at hyper levels. I think you are fine with it if you are generally having lots of low numbers/greens.

 

Very interesting. I think I need to go back and check my FreeStyle Lite against my Relion Micro again (they were always very close). But I really love those FreeStyle Lite greens!!

Rosalie, I'll be most curious to see what Abbott, your doctor, and the insurance co. conclude.

Ella & (Green) Rusty

 

When you compare, do it when the FS reads over 100 and preferably in the mid 100 range. When numbers are in the normal range the FS and the Relion micro or confirm will be reliable but what many of us have found is that the FS is off, considerably, when in the mid to high blues and higher compared to Relion confirm/micro and other meters. Several people here thought their kitties were regulated and discovered they were not. Morgaine had been looking great on the FS but everything else indicated poor control. I have noticed a huge difference since switching to the Relion confirm for her. I had to increase her dose and she has finally stopped being symptomatic. I have also noticed a big difference in my own control now that I am no longer using the FS.

 

yes, i understand the reasons a doctor would say the FreeStyle Lite is acceptable in the low range, but when we're talking "tight regulation" the difference between a 20 and a 40 or a 30 and a 50 is huge. that's where i want to see accuracy. when a kitty is in the 100s, 200s, 300s... we already know the cat needs more insulin.

i'm not minimizing your concerns. i really do understand what you're saying and i thank you for pursuing this with abbott. if you hadn't initiated this discussion i know i wouldn't have done another comparison. i just think my perspective may be different... and of course, my feelings are only specific to the tight regulation of felines.

 

Jill, I agree with your reasoning and think that it works for TR with felines. But for those of us who were thinking our kitties were regulated and not in danger of spilling glucose, we got surprised. For months I did not believe Morgaine needed to be on insulin because she was always under 150 with the FS. I thought she was doing well on diet control and many here agreed because her numbers looked so good. But, she was exhibiting symptoms which prompted me to take her to the vet and do a fructosamine. When it came back "poor control" and vet said Morgaine needed insulin, I was confused by the FS readings and her symptoms. But of course, because she was needing insulin things started to get much worse than the FS indicated. She was over 300 at times but the FS read high blues and so I was fooled into thinking things were not so severe. I kept increasing her dose but we still were not getting TR. You were also advising me at the time as we were trying to tweak her numbers to get her into the green range more often. If you look at her SS from the early months until Nov., when I realized the issue and switched to the Relion, you can see how good i thought she was doing. She was having some great green surfs at the time but when she bounced, she was much higher than the FS indicated and again I found it all a little off. Meanwhile, those much higher numbers brought on neuropathy and at that point I went to another vet and we compared the meters. FS read 140 and vet's Alpha Trak read 242 . Once I switched to the Relion confirm, I was able to treat her FD more appropriately. Linda and Weezer also were fooled as was Lisa and Do Lou and several others.

As we know now, Weezer needed much more insulin but she was testing in the blue range so often that Linda didn't know this.
I think we all have to decide what is working for each kitty. In your case, you already have the TR going and since we do not make corrections, it is totally different for felines. For humans, it is dangerous since we make corrections based on each BG test. I always give myself 1 unit of insulin for every 50 mg/DL over my normal range. I guess what i am saying is that I can see why you would continue to be satisfied with the FS. Believe me, I wish I could be as I love the tiny amount of blood needed and my insurance has been extremely generous in providing me strips. Now i am buying Relion strips for Morgaine and am up in the air while they figure it out for me but Abbott is sending me Precision X-Tra strips and a meter at no charge so they are taking this seriously..

BTW, if I get things switched, I may have lots of FS strips to pass on to others who use it. I will let you know how it all turns out and what my insurer wants me to do about all the FS strips I have accumulated.

If Morgaine got down to TR consistently, I would not be as concerned but I do feel i need to know if she is in the blues, yellows or higher and FS just wasn't doing it for me. I have documented a comparison I did on myself using 3-4 different meters and multiple tests in different ranges. I can send that to you if you want to see how off the FS was compared to the other meters I used. I even intentionally raised my BG to over 300 to see the difference and it was considerable.

If anyone wants a copy of my documentation to Abbott with the comparisons, just PM me and give me your e-mail address. I tried to post the chart but it wouldn't copy to the board.

Finally, I want to say that I am not trying to convince anyone not to use the FS but to just be aware of its limitations when looking for accuracy at hyperglycemic levels.

 

The freestyle lite meter nearly cost Vyktor his life. He was diagnosed diabetic based on a urine test (the vet was too scared to try and get blood out of him because he is a psychopuss at the vet) and that vet said not to treat. That didn't sit right with me so I did my own research and found the FDMB (yay!) and other information on home testing. Based on my research I went and bought a meter (the FS) and began home testing. According to the FS Vyktor did not go over 200 and so the vet still said not to treat. Again I didn't feel right about that so I went to another vet for a second opinion. This vet also relied on the readings I had from the FS and said not to treat. A week later Vyktor was hospitalised with his life hanging in the balance with DKA. Best as I can work out from the comparison readings I took with his new meter and the FS at a range of BG levels he was actually averaging over 300.

I loved the FS for it's tiny drop of blood and ease of use but not if it's going to cost me my baby's life. It may be okay if you have your cat well regulated already (however, based on my double tests, you will see blue when its actually yellow) but should definitely not be used by anyone that is trying to get their cat regulated it would be impossible to follow the tr protocol accurately using that meter.

I believe the issue is something to do with changes that Abbot made to the strips about 12 months ago so probably the meter was fine to use before then.

 

Hi Jill,

I do understand your thinking on the FS lite meter, but disagree with your perception about a cat being unregulated in the 100, 200 ranges. Look at this forum and you won't find many cats holding onto those green numbers.

...with so many cats in this forum being bouncy, trying to get regulated, etc. the meter is just not going to cut it. It fails miserably to provide useful information in even attempting to use the TR protocol.

I also would not advise to use it with a regulated cat, as we all know things can get wonky in a regulated cat due to teeth or infections, having to remember to change meters or the FS not even indicating something might be wrong by showing a bean accurate increased readings isn't worth it.

I used the FS lite myself last year and thought I had Attie well regulated. When we went to our new vet at the time, I wanted a full workup done on him, including a fructosimine test for their records. That darn test came back as poorly regulated. I was shocked, but when I went back to my Relion Ultima...sure enough the variance was well beyond the standard deviation of 20%.

Since switching back to the Relion and another fructosimine test by the vet, we were able to prove to them that hometesting is viable with a human meter. The last f-test was within points of the my meter's 30-day compilation.

Edit: It is interesting that we often say a cat doesn't need the F-test if there is hometesting going on, but it is exactly that test that demonstrated the failings of the FS lite meter we were using.

 

I have no facts to add to the well laid out arguments presented here. But for what it is worth, here's my emotional reaction to the roller coaster ride this meter put us through :cry:

 

yikes! i think there's a basic misunderstanding going on here...

i mentioned three meters in my original post... the FreeStyle, the FreeStyle Freedom, and the FreeStyle Lite.

yep. abbott came out with "new and improved" strips for the FreeStyle Lite. these new strips for the FreeStyle Lite seem to be the problem. recent discussion about the FreeStyle Lite meter prompted me to run another comparison. as you have all found... the discrepancies are not acceptable to me.

i am no longer using my FreeStyle Lite meter based on the comparison i did in low numbers because i am not comfortable with the results. i am not comfortable using the FreeStyle Lite when practicing TR because as i mentioned there is a huge difference between a 20 and a 40 or a 30 and a 50... whether a doctor or anyone else finds readings from the FreeStyle Lite "acceptable" in the low range.

i am no longer using the FreeStyle Lite and i agree with others who are no longer using it.

however, that doesn't mean one has to throw all the Freestyle meters into the same boat. i have found the FreeStyle and the FreeStyle Freedom meters to be quite reliable. these are the two meters i am now using. the Freestyle and FreeStyle Freedom meters do not use the so-called "new and improved" strips as the Freestyle Lite meter. i have compared my FreeStyle and FreeStyle Freedom meters with the AlphaTrak and lab results. the results in the low range are very, very close.

as i said in my first post, "i feel comfortable going forward with my Freestyle and Freestyle Freedom meters."


just a reminder about DKA and ketones...
while DKA is more likely to occur when a kitty is throwing higher numbers, ketones can and do appear when a kitty is in lower numbers. a cat can have a BG of 120 and be in full blown DKA from not eating, vomiting, and being septic. checking for ketones is important.

 

Hi, Everyone ~

Jill, my old Freestyle Freedom meter (no longer have it) that we used for our first diabetic cat in 2007 was the most accurate meter we've used when compared to lab results. Always tested within 2 to 5 points of lab results. Wish all meters were that accurate.

Discussion on Health about Freestyle Lite meters testing low:
http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=61090

Skybar, would you have a chance to post on Health letting members having problems with their Freestyle Lite meters know how to report the problems to Abbott? Of course, they'll need to report that the problems are for human diabetics not their cats. Thanks!

Eva

 

This thread has prompted me to test my 3 meters on myself this morning: FreeStyle Lite (the meter I use for Rusty), Relion Micro, Relion Confirm. I did 3 tests in a 30-minute time frame: 10:10 A.M , 10:30 A.M., 10:40 A.M.. Unfortunately, the only test that I could manage on a single drop of my blood (!) was test no. 3. Tests 1 and 2 used a different drop of blood (same finger) for the 3rd meter in the sequence. Here are the results, with the sequence of testing the meters in ( ):

Test #1 (10:10 A.M.): FreeStyleLite (1) 74; Relion Micro (2) 96; Relion Confirm (3) 101 (Confirm used new drop of blood)

Test #2 (10:30 A.M.): FreeStyleLite (2) 91; Relion Micro (1) 115; Relion Confirm (3) 80 (Confirm used new drop of blood)

Test #3 (10:40 A.M.): FreestyleLite (3) 96; Relion Micro (2) 97; Relion Confirm (1) 102 (all meters used same drop of blood)

Well, this doesn't really tell much! Test #3, all three meters using the same drop of blood, has the most consistency from meter to meter.

Jill's most recent post is pretty much the clincher for me. I don't want to fool around with a meter/strips that might give false readings. Too much is riding on it. I think I'll finish out today with my Free Style Lite, say farewell to Rusty's great, green streak, and start Rusty tomorrow on either the Micro or the Confirm as his primary meter. In the meantime, I'll test the two Relion meters against each other and pick the one whose readings I like the best!!

Ella

 

I was using a Free Style Freedom Lite not the little FSLite. It was way off and Abbott does believe it is the strips. Also, you can not use a normal blood glucose level to test the inaccuracies since the FS will show a number well within the variance on normal BGs. I will post later in the health thread but just call the number on the back of your meter and report your problems. Do not mention it is a cat as they will tell you to use the AlphaTrak and the FS is not for cats.

 

is it fair to conclude the discrepancies users have been seeing are amongst those of us who have used the "new" and "Easier to Use" strips with the blue butterfly on the box with either one of the "Lite" abbott meters (FreeStyle Freedom Lite and the FreeStyle Lite)?

i agree meter variance will be smaller in the low range, but when you test 3 meters on the same droplet of blood and 2 of them are within 1 -2 points of each other and the third one averages about 20 points lower... well, that tells me something.

 

Yes and I agree. My doc looked at the comparisons I gave him and commented on how the FS was always lower no matter what and never read higher within the variance.

I never used the FS before the new strips came out so can't compare but they obviously have a problem and it is huge since they have had to recall millions of strips before. I am hoping to be done with ABBOTT. They have had serious issues for 2 years at least and maybe longer. My Precision strips were also recalled in 2010/11.

 

then i guess my next question is, has anyone experienced this problem with any other Freestyle strips besides the "new" and "Easier to Use" strips with the blue butterfly on the box designed for use with the FreeStyle Freedom Lite or the FreeStyle Lite meter systems?



edited to add:
i remember abbott recalling some strips a few years ago. fortunately, the recall did not affect my stash of test strips.
recalls happen. i couldn't buy Excedrin this morning because of a recall. that doesn't mean the unaffected product isn't any good. i'd hate to see to see an entire line of meter/strips being trashed when the problem *appears* to be limited to a single product ("new" strips for the "Lite" meter systems eta: or the "Lite" meters). i've found the FreeStyle and FreeStyle Freedom meter systems (which require different strips than the "Lite" systems) to be the most accurate in the lower range than any other meter i've used.

 

you could never pay me enough money to use the FSL again after what Do Lou and I went thru to me the meter is pure garbage JMO