Comments on: Home A1C Testing vs. The Lab

By: Toni Miller

Toni Miller — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:37:31 +0000

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.

By: Jerry

Jerry — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 21:12:09 +0000

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.

By: Joanne

Joanne — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 16:20:34 +0000

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.

By: Cameron

Cameron — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 14:59:36 +0000

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.

By: Melinda

Melinda — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 18:59:57 +0000

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

By: James Maynard

James Maynard — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:46:18 +0000

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?

By: Conrad

Conrad — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:28:19 +0000

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

By: Leighann

Leighann — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:59:08 +0000

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!

By: Scott K. Johnson

Scott K. Johnson — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:21:54 +0000

That is too funny that your result (way to go!) matched the box picture! Crazy!

By: Kelly Rawlings

Kelly Rawlings — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:09:59 +0000

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.