Rating of the best glucometers

The classic «state employee» from a no less classic company is considered to this day the most popular glucometer in the world — well, at least that’s what the manufacturer claims. It is a compact device weighing 50 grams, together with the installed CR2032 battery, which is enough for about 1000 measurements.

Branded test strips come in packs of 50 or 100 pieces (at the time of writing, more than 1000 and 2000 r per pack, respectively). Each pack contains a code plate containing calibration data — after opening a new pack, the plate must be installed in the slot on the left side of the case, removing the old one. This is quite convenient, especially for older people — you do not need to manually enter the code number.

For measurement, the device requires you to remove the cover at the bottom of the front panel and install a new test strip in the slot, in a strictly oriented manner. After turning on, the meter will perform a self-test and display a three-digit code on the screen corresponding to the lot number of the strips (it is also the calibration code from the plate). This allows you to check whether the jar of test strips is in your hands (you never know) — the same code is on the jar label.

After that, when the “droplet” lights up on the screen, you need to have time to drop blood from your finger onto the center of the test strip in 90 seconds, then the device will need 5 seconds to measure. The meter will automatically warn you if the drop was too small, with three beeps — you can add it in time. As a result, on the screen you will get well-read (which is again good for the elderly) readings in milligrams per deciliter or millimoles per liter, whichever is more convenient for you.

The device saves up to 500 measurement results with date and time in history. And also with the possibility of marking the measurement conditions with a conditional icon (for example, “apple” is “before a meal”, “bitten apple” is “after a meal”) and the calculation of average values. This is useful when keeping a control diary.

But the USB port … is absolutely useless: there is simply no software for working with a PC, although the synchronization process is described in the instructions. But okay, for a budget device, this is not important.

In any case, the Accu-Chek Active glucometer is a truly mass-produced and quite high-quality device, and the mass character also means the availability of test strips for it.

In the category of the best electrochemical glucometers, Satellite Express wins. Considering the time of writing the article, an important advantage of this model can be considered its Russian “registration”: this gives some confidence that in the future test strips for it will definitely be available (because everything is possible in the madhouse with “import” that is happening now) . The Moscow company «ELTA» is the only manufacturer of glucometers and consumables for them in Russia. Moreover, a pack of Satellite Express test strips for 50 pieces costs around 500 rubles at the time of writing: compare, say, with the popular Accu-Chek ones.

So, what is PKG-03? This is a completely modern and convenient device, the test strips of which themselves take the required amount of blood, and you need really little of it. Tare by package is carried out by a code strip inserted into the central slot at the bottom of the meter, and after reading it is removed: the test strips themselves from the same package will subsequently need to be inserted into the same slot. The inserted test strip protrudes from the slot far enough to not have problems applying blood. A pierced finger should simply be applied to the strip and held until the “droplet” flashes. As you can see, nothing complicated.

Verification is also provided — a special control strip is included in the kit. It just needs to be inserted into the same slot and wait for the signal on the screen.

The most important advantage of the device is that it is calibrated specifically for capillary blood, with which it works, while all the others are set at the factory for venous plasma. Because of this, their readings are always, in addition to the inevitable measurement error, also overestimated by 1.12 times!

The manufacturer, we note, claims a lifetime warranty on their devices — this is nice. But, judging by customer reviews, he should have improved quality control during production: there are complaints about initially very floating measurements. Yes, there is a guarantee for that, but the sediment remains — therefore, we have reduced the originally planned rating score for this glucometer.