So it was time again for my A1C and other blood tests last week. Over-time, in fact. You know how I hate going in to the lab when I have to be fasting for lipid tests and can’t even have a latte on the way over in the morning. Ugh! And who ever said diabetics don’t mind needles?!
Anyway, I’d been saving the review unit A1c Now SelfCheck pack I got from Bayer a few weeks ago for just this occasion. What better way to test the accuracy of home a A1C testing kit? I don’t mind admitting I had very little faith in the thing. My endo had some of these in her office last year, and we tried them several times. The results were always differed wildly from the A1C I got at the hospital lab. She thought her packs might be too old, although the date on the box seemed OK.
So after dragging my behind to the hospital that day, and then enjoying a lovely post-needle cafe breakfast with my husband, I went home and snipped the seal on my A1C Now pack. Inside were all the trimmings for two tests, along with a lot of documentation and a mini-CD that’s supposed to explain how to use it — which I didn’t watch of course. I figured I’d be representative of the “average patient” who is too lazy to watch the CD. (Not to mention that I have ZERO patience myself and ripped right into the thing without thinking 
)
Lucky for me, the little fold-out Reference Guide with photos did the trick. It told me what to open first, how to prick my finger for the blood (not more than a usual BG test!), and what to open only “AFTER blood collection!” And I must have done it right, because wouldn’t you know, I got 6.3 on the Bayer test, and a 6.4 reported back from the hospital lab. Pretty impressive! (Yes, for those science guys but also for me — under 6.5, Baby!)
So I got to experience the “5-minute home A1C” without the big hospital-sized blood draw, and without this view, which despite its bright colors always makes me queasy:
Here’s the deal, complete with blood-stained finger:
The only slightly “Twilight Zone” aspect was the picture on the product box:
Hey, they got exactly a 6.3 result, too! Weird. Hmm, a common occurrence? Or unexplained coincidence from “the land of both shadow and substance”?
I’m not sayin’ it’s rigged or anything. In fact, I’m blown away by the concurrence with my hospital results. Would I shell out $15 ($30 for the two-pack) to do this at home next time as long as no lipids are required? Yes, I do believe I would, in accordance with my goal in life: staying as far away from the hospital as possible. I’m so not kidding.
Thanks for the comparison. I’ve been wondering about these tests as well.
Certainly didn’t want to find myself enjoying a “good” result only to be discouraged later. Or, vice versa.
At $15 that is worth every penny!
Thanks again!
Nice A1C!
Keep up the great work.
AFAIK different labs have different standards when it comes to HbA1c test reporting…one of the labs gave my average blood glucose as ~160 for my A1c whereas another lab (subsequent 3 month test) got the exact same A1c number but gave a different average blood glucose number.
Did it happen with the two tests (lab and home) that you have?
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Thanks for this post. I’ve wondered about testing at home. It might be good for me since my goal is to get under 7.0 before the year end. AND considering I never get my A1c result before I leave the lab this would help me out.
I had invested in a kit myself but didn’t do a comparion to having a “real” a1c done. My first one was a 7.4 but when I went to the endo a couple of weeks later it was 8.3 there
Didn’t expect such a difference, even with a couple of weeks in between. Glad you had a better result .. in both the comparison and especially the reading!! Keep up your good work!
I wonder if it is similarly accurate at higher A1c levels… Did it come with documentation showing comparisons with lab A1c tests?
I took advantage of the various A1c tests offered on the exhibit floor at ADA 2009. 5 different results from 6 tests – anywhere from 5.6-6.3. What is my A1c?
Wonder if they’d do a free trial? That price really isn’t bad, but I’d want to be pretty sure I wasn’t just pitching my money away….Ro
I meant to include I have not been dx’d with diabetes (yet?). My son has type 1 – 20 years.
If it hadn’t been for your hospital lab test I would have assumed all the A1C at home tests read 6.3
Yeah, me too, Wil. That was the ‘suspicious’ thing about it…
I tried a home A1c test maybe 3 years ago or so. I don’t remember the brand or anything. Like you, i tested within a day of having gone to the lab, and it was only off by 0.1. I only did it that one time, just to see how it was, but I was happy enough with it. The tests seemed to disappear not so long after that though.
I always have to get other tests done too along with a spot urine, so there’s not really any point to me using it other than to feed my neurosis about knowing what it is far more often than I really need to know
I’ve been thinking about getting one of these for a while. I’ll have to check it out, thanks for the info.
10 labs can produce 10 different A1cs from the same sample of my blood within the range of 2 percentage points.
Mostly I succeed in keeping my 1h postprandial bg spikes below 160 mg/dl, but my A1c would not be any different, if I let it jump up to 300 and more on a regular basis, if only it would be down to 80-100 mg/dl 2-3 hours later.
So a good A1c does not necessarily bode of lots of completely healthy bg-curves but a bad one does betray a larger amount of a substantial number of hours far above the healthy range per day
Facit: The A1c-test cannot help in any way to get a daily bg-curve closer to the healthy one. So I’d rather have some more bg test strips if I was looking for something useful to spend my money on.
Amy,
I was thinking about getting this A1c home test as well, thanks for writing about it. So jealous of your a1c by the way!
Thanks Amy! Our endo and diabetes educator has continuously toted the fact that these don’t work, so it will be nice to go back and prove that they do! Let me know if you have others that post that have tried it and gotten an accurate test off of both the lab and home A1C. Thanks!
I’m glad the at-home version matched your lab version. I’d love to see others compare their results, too!
(And I just rec’d my A1C result yesterday – you and I are matchy-matchy! 6.3 for the win.)
Impressive is right- and the results were instant!
I recently received several a1c tests to try in the mail- but all require the user to mail them to the lab to get the results!
Way to go!
Kelly K
Great post. I tried this several years ago with another home test that I had found on the internet and compared it with a test that I had done a few days later at the lab and it was identical. I’m prediabetic so I check from time to time but haven’t done an A1C since then. A few times when I thought about doing it and asked at different pharmacy’s I would either get a reaction like “you want a what?” to “oh, yeah we did have a few of those but I don’t think we do now, let me get the catalog”. You’ve given me the incentive to get a Bayer home test. At that price it’s much cheaper than going to the doc as my health insurance sucks – my deductible is sky high.
Hmmm. My recent experiment with the same product yielded wildly divergent results compared to in-office (note not lab) endo result.
6.7 at endo, 7.6 then 7.4 on the self-check.
Which result to trust? I’m going with the endo (OK, NOT just ’cause it’s lower) but because it matches up to my meter averages and how those typically correlate to my A1Cs.
That is too funny that your result (way to go!) matched the box picture! Crazy!
When we go to our doctor’s main office at the major hospital, they do it in the lab and take a huge drop of blood for the A1C. But when we go to the satellite office, they lance my daughter’s finger with her own lancing device, draw only one drop of blood, and have the results right away. I’ve always wondered what the difference is.
Either way, they give her a sugar-free lollipop when she is done!
I have used the Bayer A1cNow meter after a check at the VA and the VA said I was at 8.4 and Bayer said I was at 8.5 and didn’t match what was on the box, darn! The VA tests me about every 6 months and sometimes longer.
Maybe Bayer will start selling refill tests sometime soon, I really hate to throw the meter out in the trash. I will keep buying and using it til something better comes along.
Type 2 since 1991
I’m definitely going to have to try this. The one thing that worries me is the many different reports (at least in these comments) of greatly varying results. How accurate are these supposed to be?
my doctor tried to get an A1C on me today and he could not get a reading. i was told that there may be something underlying and was given an Rx for bloodwork. Should i be concerned? i dont know when i can get the blood work done.
Thank you,
M. A. Jividen
I don’t like the point-of care devices much. A friend of mine told me about a study that was published last year where 6 out of 8 devices on the market didn’t meet clinical lab standards for accuracy. I found a company called Coremedica. They offer a $15.00 home collection test that I have to send back to lab. I think it is really accurate, when I first used it, it was only .5 off a whole blood reading from my doctors after a couple of days. Even though I have to wait three or four days to my results it worth the time not driving and setting in a doctors office.
I also learned that lab do have different results but once you find one that is accurate you should stay with that lab and not keep switching around. The lab iI use above keeps track of all my history on their report. Very useful in my mind.
Thank you for this information. We just lost my 15 year old nephew to undiagnosed type 2 diabetes. He walked into er with bg level over 1000 and electrolytes off the charts. He crashed as they treated him. His heart gave out and cpr took 20 minutes. Brain swelling caused brain stem herniation and brain death. All of this occured in a matter of 3 days. I dont know his a1c level but was told it indicated he was elevated for a while. He has an equally over wieght sister and I want to step in and help. I would like to start by doing an at home test on her but intend on insisting they get her to the doctor asap for full lab tets.
As a retired hospital lab manager and type 2 diabetic, I can understand a lot of the confusion on testing. Home testing has dramatically improved in the last few years. Specimen collection is still the biggest problem (too little sample, poor circulation, contaminated sample, etc.) and with A1c’s other diseases can alter the results. I agree that it’s a good idea to find one place for testing or one brand and stay with it. As to the comment about one lab’s results being closer to the daily readings, there are a couple of different formulas for converting the actual A1c result to ‘average daily glucose.’ Neither is right or wrong–just different. A1c is used to give an idea of what blood sugars have been over the last few months, but it is weighted more to the most recent blood sugars.
Like a lot of things in medicine, we get a ‘maybe’ answer instead of ‘yes or no.’ Guess that’s why we go to the physicians for explanations.
Hi,
I know you posted this a few years ago, but I was just wondering about the a1c tests inside of the pharmacys in the area. Thanks for sharing your findings. It helped me a lot. I am going to try it today. Stop by my blog and say hello. I’m one of your Facebook fans. Thanks again.
[...] those two weeks were up. Previously hesitant to use the test in the past due to possible accuracy concerns, I figured this might give me some idea about what my control was like and whether I needed to [...]
Wal Mart sold me one today with an expiration date of September 2011! Nothing worked, no response yet from Wal Mart other than “no returns on bloss testing equip,ent, no refund, call Bayer”. I then purchased one from CVS, with a 6/13 expiration date. I’m Type Ii on Onglyza. Result: 5.9, and I’m happy. My mother was Type I, I remained slender all my adult life, but still develpoed Type II at age 52.
I checked sugar content on food, and read about it growing up, its been a habit for decades. I think the Bayer NOW is accurate, I’ve cut my sugar to 20g a day, not 30 as my DR. recommened. Highest BG in six months after I could not remember if I’d taken my Onglyza so skipped a night; the next morning 175. Since then, I use the pill boxes with days of the week written on them. There are plenty of low sugar treats compared to the 1980s, I do not feel deprived. And fruits and vegatables are more interesting now-I used to be white potaoes, corn, peas. Mashed sweet potatoes have TEXTURE. I quit eating white bread a long time ago, several 12 grains have become favorites. And if my BG is over 140-a VERY fast walk, half a mile takes it down 25-30 points. 140 is rare, the one time 175 the highest since I was diagnosed. Until it is determined to be otherwise, the A1c at home is fine for me. I plan to “suggest” my MD ordera lab A1c, but he older, very buy ib this poor area of north florida, and a lab A1c is expensive, and time consuming.
Hi
thanks for the post. I am planning to buy one for my patients, since I’m a dietitian, having this would be a lot of help for me to determine if my patients were following the diet for past 3 months. And also I would like to thank those who gave their comments, now I know that the result could really have some difference but only a little, well I wish that all of us could reach our goal; to have a normal blood glucose and live a normal life even with diabetes. More powers.