Discussion of diabetes management in day to day life

27
Feb

Fingerstick A1C?

How many of you have physicians with a fingerstick A1C machine in their
office?  Of  the 4 pediatric endocrinologists my son has been to, only
one had such a machine.   Unfortunately I couldn’t continue with that
physician because he didn’t believe in a sliding scale for insulin.  
While we are exceedingly happy with our current endo, she doesn’t have
this machine in her office.   In this day and age of available technology,
 we should demand that they stop taking blood from veins, when a
fingerstick will do.  I just ordered a home A1C test that uses a
fingerstick.  It’s from DSS in Florida.  The kit is pending FDA approval.
 In my opinion, my 8 year old should be able to have one comprehensive
blood work drawn from his vein per year, and the rest of these A1C tests
should be done from the fingerstick.  I’ll keep you posted about the
results.  The video it came with shows how simple it is.

posted by admin in Uncategorized and have Comments (13)

13 Responses to “Fingerstick A1C?”

  1. admin says:
    February 27 at 9:14 pm

    In article <49dlda$…@usenetp1.news.prodigy.com>, LAVW…@prodigy.com (Jeffry Ullman) writes:

    |> fingerstick will do.  I just ordered a home A1C test that uses a
    |> fingerstick.  It’s from DSS in Florida.  The kit is pending FDA approval.
    |>  In my opinion, my 8 year old should be able to have one comprehensive
    |> blood work drawn from his vein per year, and the rest of these A1C tests
    |> should be done from the fingerstick.  I’ll keep you posted about the
    |> results.  The video it came with shows how simple it is.

    Do you have other information you can post?  Who sells it?  How accurate
    is it?  I’d like to pass on the information to my endocrinologist.

    Andy

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  2. admin says:
    February 27 at 9:14 pm

    LAVW…@prodigy.com (Jeffry Ullman) wrote:
    >How many of you have physicians with a fingerstick A1C machine in their
    >office?  Of  the 4 pediatric endocrinologists my son has been to, only
    >one had such a machine.

    We have been doing HA1c’s on the finger stick machines for about 3
    years–first at the UTMB clinic in Galveston, Texas and, after our
    doctor left, then at the UT/Hermann Clinic in Houston.  Both of these
    are teaching hospitals–that could be the difference.  It is
    great–and at our last support group, the accuracy question was
    raised.  The CDE facilitating our group said their experience proved
    it to be equal to the drawn sample test.

    Judy Haley  

  3. admin says:
    February 27 at 9:14 pm

    DSS A1C Home Collection Kit is available

    1-800-252-0207 Diabetes Support Systems.

    It comes with a 5 minute video that explains how to perform the test (so
    simple), and it comes with 4 collection kits.  I forgot to refrigerate
    one part upon arrival.  They said that it’s ok because it was in an air
    conditioned house.

    No more unecessary venipunctures for my 8 year old.

    "Mom"

  4. admin says:
    February 27 at 9:14 pm

    In a previous article, LAVW…@prodigy.com (Jeffry Ullman) says:

    >How many of you have physicians with a fingerstick A1C machine in their
    >office?

    I know of only one medical type person who has such a machine……
    He is a banker however (And moderator of a Diabetes forum elsewhere)

    Which machine did you buy?  His is the DCA–2000 (I Think)
    —
       John F Davis In Delightful Detroit, Mi.    aa…@detroit.freenet.org
             "Nothing adds excitement to your life like something
             that is clearly none of your business!"     Battista

  5. admin says:
    February 27 at 9:14 pm

    Price:  $24.95 U.S.  plus $4 shipping and handling.

  6. admin says:
    February 27 at 9:14 pm

    mha…@infohwy.com (Michael W. Haley) wrote:

    > LAVW…@prodigy.com (Jeffry Ullman) wrote:

    > We have been doing HA1c’s on the finger stick machines for about 3
    > years–first at the UTMB clinic in Galveston, Texas and, after our
    > doctor left, then at the UT/Hermann Clinic in Houston.  

    Judy,
      I was a patient of Dr. Edward Bastyr at UTMB before he moved to IN
    and am now looking for a new endo.  Can you recommend any in the
    Houston-Galveston, Dallas, or San Antonio-Austin areas?
      Regarding the post:  the finger stick A1C tests are great!  The
    labs use an HPLC machine with a column made specifically for these
    tests.  Therefore, I would be very wary of any at-home type tests.
    Also of importance is that different methods of A1C tests give different
    results, so it is best that one be consistent with the type of test
    as well as with the laboratory administering it.

    Thanks in advance for any info Judy!
    Kimberly Greer, kgr…@vetmed.tamu.edu

  7. admin says:
    February 27 at 9:14 pm

    I forgot to post the cost.  $24.95 U.S.  plus $4.00 shipping and handling.

  8. admin says:
    February 27 at 9:14 pm

    In article <49ir17$…@usenetp1.news.prodigy.com>, LAVW…@prodigy.com
    says…

    >DSS A1C Home Collection Kit is available

    >1-800-252-0207 Diabetes Support Systems.
    >No more unecessary venipunctures for my 8 year old.

    >"Mom"

    Dear "Mom", I know you’re not trying to sell it, so can you tell us
    how much it cost? Ballpark is fine. No more unnecessary venipunctures for
    anyone! (Not that fingersticks don’t get old after a while.)
    —
    Esther A. Paris, CTM   Esther_A_Pa…@ccmail.res.ray.com
    "Ask me about Toastmasters International."
    Software Design & Development Engineer – Raytheon Electronic Systems
    ‘night elf’

  9. admin says:
    February 27 at 9:14 pm

    On 3 Dec 1995 06:46:17 -0500, dee…@aol.com (Dee927) wrote:

    >I was just wondering why the A1c is so important.  If you are doing
    >fingersticks each day, wouldn’t you know how you are doing? :-)

    However, when you test yourself all you know is how you are at one
    single point in time. You have no way of knowing whether your bgs are in
    the process of going up, down or staying stable. The A1c (as I
    understand it) is supposed to give you an over all average over a period
    of many weeks.

    As an example: you can test yourself before breakfast and have a perfect
    reading  Your bgs may then do a major spike right after eating and only
    drop just before lunch when you get another good reading. So, based on
    the two tests you may think everything is OK, although in reality you
    weren’t doing so well. Unless you want to test every hour (or more),
    all day long, you won’t have the complete picture.

    I’ve had A1c’s come back that were at odds with my before-meal testing.
    (My doctor has compared my meter readings with his, so I know my meter
    is OK).  Based on that, I’ve adjusted the ratio of Regular to NPH to
    keep the spikes down.

    ==Sam==

  10. admin says:
    February 27 at 9:14 pm

    there is supposed to be something called "self-assure" (by evalulab) –
    mentioned in one of the Barbara and June books.  They claim that it is as
    accurate as the lab results.  Apparently you take the sample and send it to
    the evalulab lab.  Does anyone know anything about this test? cost?
    availability?

    Thanks,

    Warren

  11. admin says:
    February 27 at 9:14 pm

    dee…@aol.com (Dee927) wrote:
    >I was just wondering why the A1c is so important.  If you are doing
    >fingersticks each day, wouldn’t you know how you are doing? :-)

    The theoretical minimum number of fingersticks/day to give a reasonable
    estimate of average bg is 8.  In practice, it is somewhat higher say
    10 or 12.  Blood glucose values vary significantly during the day and
    it takes many tests to capture the variability.  As an extreme example,
    if you take only a fasting blood sugar every day, you would be only
    measuring the at the time when your bg was likely to be at its lowest.  
    This would produce a very bad estimate of average bg levels.

    The A1c, and the other similar tests, produce an average value for
    a reasonably long period of time, a couple months.

    –
    Charles Coughran
    ccough…@ucsd.edu

  12. admin says:
    February 27 at 9:14 pm

    In a previous article, LAVW…@prodigy.com (Jeffry Ullman) says:

    >Price:  $24.95 U.S.  plus $4 shipping and handling.

    Is that a "one shot" test or is that a ‘Refillable’ test?
    (and if so how much are the refills)
    —
       John F Davis In Delightful Detroit, Mi.    aa…@detroit.freenet.org
             "Nothing adds excitement to your life like something
             that is clearly none of your business!"     Battista

  13. admin says:
    February 27 at 9:15 pm

    In article <49ak69$…@ixnews7.ix.netcom.com>, carri…@ix.netcom.com (Carrie ) writes:

    =Based on his symptoms, how soon/long until this DKA happens?  Is he in
    =immediate danger of a coma?  Are we talking days?  weeks?  months??  

    There’s no way to tell, based on his symptoms.  He could be a Type-II diabetic,
    in which case he might never reach the state of DKA.  He might be experincing
    the onset of Type I, in which case, it could be a matter of days, or of years,
    depending on how rapid the onset is.  Or he might not be diabetic at all.
    —————————————————————————
    I  try  very  hard  to say exactly what I mean.  I’d appreciate it if you’d
    bear that in mind and not try to "interpret"  my  posts  to  fit  your  own
    preconceived notions if I’m posting in a serious thread.  Remember:  If you
    throw a strawman into a heated debate, flames are likely to be the result.

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