With the
advent of diabetic testing equipments in the early 1980’s, patients have been
using their fingers to acquire blood samples to regularly monitor their sugar
levels. In fact, fingers have been accepted as the only source of blood for
almost two decades for this procedure. Patients use to check their sugar levels
once in a day. But with time, they started to manage their diabetes intensively
by conducting 4-6 check-ups per day.
Due to
this reason, patients felt the need to use alternate sites that assist them to
procure blood samples for their regular check-ups. Keeping this demand in mind,
many manufacturers started to develop monitors that were accurate enough and
were approved for alternate sites as well. These alternate sites for which
manufacturers created monitors for diabetic patients were forearm, upper arm,
fleshy side of the palm by the pinky, thigh, calf area and fleshy area between
the thumb and the index finger.
The
ultimate advantage of performing diabetic tests at alternate sites was that
patients were no longer subjected to more pain. This is mostly because
alternate sites tend to have less number of nerve endings as compared to the
fingertips. Another benefit is that patients can give their already sore
fingers some rest and still perform their blood sugar tests regularly. This
leads to another benefit and that is patients can check their sugar levels more
frequently.
And
finally, diabetic patients also get to collect samples which are less likely to
contain other contaminants that can ruin the blood sample for the test. Information
like this and more is available at Arriva Medical which is a mail order diabetic testing equipments supplier in Coral
Springs, FL. Therefore, if you have any queries regarding alternate sites and
how to conduct tests there, then just visit the medical supplier’s website to
learn more.
