coaguchek strips

[babshappy]

Hi
I was told yesterday that once you open a canister of strips, that they expire in 3 months from the date of opening...so if that's true then why would one buy 24 strips for 200.00 only to have them expire in 3 months. so my question is ...Would you use up that many strips in 3 months???? I bought my strips in oct 2012 , with an expiry date of June 2013...so obviously they have been opened way beyond the 3 month mark?? Am I missing something??

thanks

 

[Freddie]

I think someone has been misinformed.
Use the expiry date as your dead line.

I was told that the strips are sensitive to humidity........to close the container once you remove a strip. Leaving the container of strips open while completing your test could damage the other strips.

 

[TheGymGuy]

I think someone has been misinformed.
Use the expiry date as your dead line.

I was told that the strips are sensitive to humidity........to close the container once you remove a strip. Leaving the container of strips open while completing your test could damage the other strips.

Freddie is right, the expiration date is when they expire. I open the container long enough to get one strip out and close it asap. Seems to have worked so far.

 

[pellicle]

to the OP:

+1 Freddie's comment.
Also worth a read http://www.valvereplacement.org/forums/showthread.php?41265-expiration-date-on-strips

 

[Bina]

Once a year I order strips and receive 4 tubes of 6 strips each. Like Freddie said, I only concern myself with the expiry date which is one year ahead.
When I test every 2 weeks, i make sure to close the tube immediately after removing the test strip and I store the tubes in a dry area. (not in the bathroom).

 

[babshappy]

Bina ,
do you order directly from Roche or from the pharmacy?? I was told the smallest container I could order from my pharmacy was 24..i like the idea of 4 tubes of 6....

 

[Bina]

Bina ,
do you order directly from Roche or from the pharmacy?? I was told the smallest container I could order from my pharmacy was 24..i like the idea of 4 tubes of 6....

I call the pharmacy, and they order from Roche.
The past couple of years i am getting the 4 tubes of 6 and i love it. No more worry about losing a whole tube at huge cost.

 

[mecretired]

Just FYI--I have a coaguchek xs that I purchased myself and purchase my strips online. I have several strips that just expired the end of March 2013. So I decided to back up the date on my meter to Feb and used 1 of my expired strips this morning. It passed the quality check and gave me a reading that is in range and in line with what I got a few days ago. So I am assuming that the reading is valid. However, I will be purchasing more in date strips very shortly and will probably go to the lab next week just to be sure.

 

[Protimenow]

I find it hard to believe that strips that are good on March 31 will suddenly turn unusable on April 1.

The 'good by' dates (or expiration dates) are often assigned to assure that the quality is adequate so that a test (or a product) will perform as expected. The product will possibly degrade in its performance or accuracy after the 'use by' date expires. In the case of test strips - it is probably safe to assume that expired strips are still usable for a few months after the marked expiration date. In the past, I've had to use the date changing strategy on my ProTime meter so I could continue to use expired cuvettes past their programmed date.

There is alway the risk that the accuracy of the strips will decline over time, but you probably have a few months before there should be much concern about that.

One of the members on this forum indicated that InRatio strips are still accurate up to one year after their expiration date. I've used expired strips and compared them to strips that were still current, and found both to be equally inaccurate (they almost always report .3 - .6 higher than a blood draw).

In some cases, the expiration dates seem to be marketing tools to sell more products. Some OTC medications, for example, seem to be fully potent many months after expiration. In fact, there are some that I continue to use long after they 'expire'.

Of course, there are some items where expiration dates may already be too long (who here hasn't gotten sour milk that was still in date?)