When you purchase a modern glucose meter, you are likely to see a recommendation on the best control solution for your machine. A control is any process that helps to establish the accuracy of the readings that are coming from another machine. Because the results of the control are known, the variation from the control can be used to determine how accurate the measurements are. Here is what you need to know about the control solutions for glucometers.
What Is it?
A glucometer control solution is used to test the accuracy of a glucometer. The manufacturer will often produce a control solution that has a determined level of glucose. This solution is typically set at three levels namely low, medium, and high glucose concentration. This in turn allows you to test the accuracy of your glucometer at these levels. However, you do not need to test all these three levels as one is usually sufficient to give you a good idea of how accurate your glucometer is. By checking the variance between the set glucose concentration level on the solution and the reading produced by your glucometer, you can tell how accurate your glucometer is.
How The Strip Works
Your glucometer works with the control solution in exactly the same way as it interacts with your blood sample. The strip has enzymes that interact with your blood sample to produce an electrical charge. This electrical charge is then used by the glucometer to get a reading on the glucose concentration levels in the blood sample. The control solution works in the same way with the difference that the exact glucose concentration in the solution is known in advance. Based on how close the reading is to the known glucose concentration in the control, one can easily determine the accuracy of the glucometer. The control solution can also help determine the accuracy of the test strips.
We are going to explain to you how you can go about testing the accuracy of your testing strips and glucometer using a control solution.
Get All The Materials Together
This means getting the test strips, the glucometer, and the control solution together. From the strip container, take one strip from a particular batch. The assumption here is that if the strip is accurate, then the entire batch is likely to be accurate as well. When you remove the strip from the container, make sure that you close it immediately to prevent any contaminants from affecting the rest of the strips.
Apply Solution To Strip
It is recommended not to apply the solution directly on the strip from the bottle. Rather, you should instead put a drop of the control collusion on the bottle cap and dip the right end of the strip into the solution. This is because applying the solution directly can lead to contamination of the strip as the bottle may touch the strip. Once you have applied the solution on the strip, proceed to make a reading of the glucose levels in the solution.
Check Accuracy
The last step of this process is to compare the reading you get from the glucometer with the indicated glucose concentration on the control solution bottle. The less the variance, the more accurate the glucometer and test strips are.