CURO-L7 Professional Grade Blood Cholesterol Testing with Home KIT - All-in-One Test Device, Test Strips 5ea, Lancets, and EziTube Rod Included

The Curo L7 was a very advance monitoring tool for both Glucose and Lipid panel. As time went by the glucose analyzer was surpass by other products that let you control the diabetes and insulin better furthermore the glucose strips are not available any more, however the lipid profiles is excellent so is what I use this kit for I have seen many negative comments for this product here in Amazon and I wonder IF some of them are users errors. I will give you some tips that help me to get excellent results. 1. Be sure that the test strip expiration date is OK. 2. The Curo L7 device is already pre-calibrated so if the device works well the numbers should be reliable. 3. First do the Initial setup of the device: User Manual page #14. Ignore "Mode change" in page 22 because when you insert the blue code chip it will default to Lipid Mode what is what you want (Be sure the analyzer is OFF when you insert the code chip) 4. Second check if the device is working well without errors. Use the plastic strip test that comes with the kit. Page #43 of the User Manual 5. Blood sampling is tricky because you need far more blood than the small drops that you use for glucose test. Also the lancet provided can not be reset. Have another lancet ready jic or even better have one of the lancet that you use for glucose testing ready in case you need to stick another finger. You do not need to fill the tube to the mark in one time, you can get another drop and complete the filling. 5. The EZ tubing is a plastic pipette with one end close with a bulb so be sure you grab the tube not the bulb and place the tip on the sampling window and then very slowly squeeze the bulb between thumb and index to drop the blood. This is key, be patient and do it slowly until the "window' port is cover with blood. User Manual #31. 6. Do the test in a flat surface where the device is lying flat. 7. Be sure the EZ tube does not roll if you accidentally touch it with the finger. I have a small piece of packing foam where I made a grove so the EZ tube can not roll. 8. Wash your hands with regular soap and let it dry well ++. If you want you can use alcohol pad also be sure the finger is dry. Test can be affected if you do not follow these precautions. 9. The Lipid Test Strips comes with a insert with some extra info, worth to read it. Hope you get the optimal numbers as describe in the User Manual page # 37. I have a couple of questions and I sent an e-mail to support and they were answered the following day which is excellent. In summary this is a great pro kit to get the lipid panel.

First of all, contrary to many reviews here, the blood sample required for this meter isn't excessive or difficult to draw. Yes, it uses substantially more than your typical glucometer, but not "spoonfuls." The key to success is to use a 21ga lancet, which are included with the meter, not the smaller 31ga types which are common with diabetics. The 21ga types look intimidating, yes, but they are only slightly more painful than smaller ones, and used properly, they will ensure that you can get an adequate sample. Place a test strip in the meter and open the door when prompted. Once you've pricked your finger and squeezed out a large blob, allow the Ezi-tube to draw the blood by capillary action -- meaning, do not squeeze the bulb to suck the blood up. The tube will draw up blood only to the black line (where you need to be), and then it will draw no more. You can have the tube in any position, but it's probably easiest to lay it on a flat surface so you can use both hands to apply the sample. Apply all of the blood on the tube to the window on the test strip. It appears to help avoid errors if you poke and prod at the window a little while you apply the sample. Then close the door and pray. Within about 30 seconds, it should start counting down from 3 minutes, after which the meter will display your results. Now, having said all of that, the meter is actually error-prone, inaccurate, and somewhat inconsistent. Out of 8 attempts, I got an E-2 (inadequate blood sample) error 4 times, despite using the proper & exact amount of blood each time. That's $40 in wasted strips. To verify accuracy, I brought the meter with me to a Quest appointment, and ran a test with it right before they drew my blood for a lipid profile. The meter read 11% lower than Quest for total cholesterol, 6% lower for HDL, a whopping 25% lower for LDL, and 13% lower for triglycerides. To verify consistency, I ran two tests back-to-back. The only significant variation was in triglycerides, which was off by 8% between the two tests. Unfortunately, monitoring triglycerides is why I bought the meter. So, in summary, a waste of money and very likely to give you inactionable results. A lipid profile from Quest is less than $30, but obviously a lot more inconvenient.

As you'll notice from my video, getting enough blood for this test is sometimes non-trivial. Its's a thirsty meter. It's also very picky (as are most of these kinds of testers) about exact ORDER of how things are done... My first test time didn't go so well... came out with Error E1, which meant wrongly inserted or bad test strip. Turned out, I should have COVER CLOSED when I inserted strip, then OPENED it to drip blood on it, then CLOSED it again. So here are the corrected steps: [ When new: prepare the meter with Date / Time / Code Strip etc ] Every other time is essentially the same step sequence: - Insert BLANK test strip, then when it says OPE: - OPEN cover door - Red light in the test strip will BLINK, meaning "drip blood here" - Lance yourself, fill TUBE with blood up to BLACK LINE (and it does take quite a bit) - Squeeze the little BULB on the tube to DRIP blood onto the red light / test strip - CLOSE cover door when it says CLO; wait THREE minutes - SEE your reading My error (resulting in wasting one of these fairly spendy test strips!!) was that I put blood on the test strip BEFORE inserting it... so I got things in the wrong order. The machine didn't like that, so it ignored that strip. No recovery; start again. Anyway... The thing does work, but I wish it would give me better results. That, I guess is up to DIET, EXERCISE and MEDS... (and in my case, a long line of heredity that lends even vegetarians like me to higher cholesterol, just based on inheritance. : ( Meter: GOOD; Results: NOT SO GOOD; My ability to follow directions: NEEDS IMPROVEMENT!