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January 13, 2002

Blood Tests and Insulin Injections

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Question from West Palm Beach, Florida, USA:

My glucose meter will read out as either whole blood or plasma. Basically, it takes a whole blood reading and multiplies it by 1.12, and the manual says the plasma reading is closer to what a lab would get. Is this true? Should I be using the plasma or whole blood setting?

Answer:

From: DTeam Staff

You bring up an often confusing point. Some meters you can’t change from whole blood to plasma readings. I think more of the newer meters are now giving readings calibrated to plasma. As you mentioned, plasma readings would be closer to the laboratory results and so you might prefer this for comparison. The important thing is consistency, to use one or the other. This is especially true if you are taking insulin.

TB