Technical data

Testing blood glucose

4 Testing blood glucose

4.1 Preparing to test blood glucose

You will need the following items to carry out the test:

" the meter with a test strip drum inserted

" the finger pricker to obtain blood

" a lancet for the finger pricker

 Wash your hands with warm water and soap, and dry well. This

stimulates blood flow and ensures that the puncture site is clean.

4.2 Preparing the finger pricker

You use the finger pricker to obtain blood from a fingertip or earlobe, or

from other (alternative) sites. If you wish to obtain blood from alternative

sites (such as the base of the thumb, forearm, upper arm, calf or thigh),

you must replace the normal black cap on the finger pricker with a spe-

cial, transparent AST cap (which is included in the pack or can be

obtained by calling the Accu-Chek Customer Careline free on

0800 701000 (UK) or 1800 709600 (Ireland)). Please read the instruc-

tions for use that come with the AST cap before you use blood from

alternative sites to test blood glucose.

You can choose one of 11 different penetration depth settings to suit

your own skin type. You can use the finger pricker either docked with

the meter, or undocked.

The finger pricker has a plunger at the top (see illustration in Chapter

1.2). This plunger has three functions:

" priming the finger pricker

" triggering the lancet to obtain blood

" ejecting the used lancet

You can perform all of these functions using just one hand, as to acti-

vate a function you only have to press the plunger down.

To obtain blood you first need to insert a lancet and then set the pene-

tration depth.