CardioChek Deluxe Kit

Works excellent and much cheaper than buying single throw away tests. For an interesting read about cholesterol, search "LDL is your friend" and see dr perlmutter's article.

This cholesterol meter is a “fail” for me, but I need to distinguish between the seller and the product. If I could, I would rate the seller as 1 star and the product as 2 stars. For me, the meter didn’t work. I think I may have been sent a partially failed unit, but am unsure and am not going to spend any more time figuring it out. I threw it out and wrote off the $150 as a failed experiment. If you are thinking of buying this product, please consider the risks and alternatives described below. Experience: I am an engineer by training and experience. I know how to carefully follow instructions and similar activities. I wanted to track my cholesterol numbers as part of a personal experiment with different diets. I thought owning a cholesterol meter would be easier and less expensive than having a professional lab do cholesterol testing. I carefully followed the instructions for use of this meter. Basically the procedure is: prick finger with a supplied lancet, collect blood into a capillary tube to a designated marker, and, put the collected blood on a slide and insert into the meter. The meter turned out to give highly inconsistent readings - the blood samples read over a range of more than +/- 50mg/dL with blood drawn during a single ½ hour. That is too large a range to be considered remotely reliable, even if I just wanted relative rather than absolute numbers. Risks: I requested to return the product. The seller stated it was probably my fault the readings were erratic (it wasn't) and they couldn’t allow a return due to FDA regulations. I asked for the applicable FDA regulations (I work with both technical specifications and both state and federal regulations all the time). The seller then dropped the FDA argument and simply stated they don’t take returns. The FDA argument by the seller appears to be purposefully misleading. Regulations certainly prevent anyone from reselling items in certain categories, but that means a seller has to dispose of a return rather than reselling it. An example from everyday life is CVS-branded products in the same category, such as lancets. If one of their CVS-branded products doesn’t work, CVS will refund the money and then dispose of the item (I asked one of their pharmacists about this process explicitly). CVS’s idea is simple - they want to retain good customers, so will write-off the loss if something doesn’t work. This seller won’t take returns. I rate them as 1 star. The product may generally be better than the one I received, and I am willing to rate it with 2 stars with the understanding I got a meter with some problems. I decided to rate the overall experience as 2 stars, trying to be fair to the product versus the seller. But be warned: if for any reason, including reasons having nothing to do with you, the meter doesn’t work you are simply out the purchase price. Alternatives: After trying to work with the unreliable meter, I found one national testing lab, LabCorp, that will run the tests I wanted for about $30 through a website called RequestATest. I have now used their services several times and will continue to do so. In addition to being relatively cheap, the results are reliable. There are probably other labs that do the same thing; there just happens to be a LabCorp location near me so I used them. I would suggest this alternative to this meter for anyone who, like me, wanted to track their cholesterol numbers on their own.

I've had high triglycerides for most of my life and at age 73, I'm determined to do something about it. I plan to use the CardioCheck device between my regular lab tests to see if I'm on the right track. I don't know how accurate it is, but I know it is helpful just to go through the motions of self-monitoring my progress. The lancets are painless.

Totally worthless. Requires a LOT of blood. The pipettes to collect the blood are impossible to use. Device returns numbers totally out of whack and all over the place. Running several tests within a few minutes returns totally different numbers in a ridiculous range. Pretty sure the calculation they are using is nothing more than a random number generator. The one star is for the two batteries that came with the meter. I was able to use those in my TV remote. The rest went into the trash. If you need a couple batteries for $150, this one is for you.

I was recently diagnosed with high triglycerides and put on Niaspan and told to cut back on sugars and carbs etc. I wanted to know between the doctor's semi-annual blood work if I was staying on track. Before, my triglycerides were 297. After a week on the Niaspan and completely cutting out sugars and most carbs and using the treadmill, my triglycerides were down to 71. I think this was skewed because the test that was high was right after holidays 4 months prior to the cardiologist appointment. But, in any case I wanted to be able to see how what I eat affects my triglycerides. The morning I was to have blood work again (after fasting) I used the CardioCheck device and my triglycerides showed 65. The actual lab work that same morning (blood taken an hour later at the lab) my triglycerides were 74. So, I believe that the device is fairly accurate for that purpose. I have not tested LDL and HDL yet using the device.

I wanted to check my cholesterol before beginning a statin. Instead of paying another $300 for lab tests, I used this instrument to track my numbers. It arrived promptly and was a very good alternative to expensive lab testing. I monitor my blood sugars and now can also monitor cholesterol. Thank you.

I purchased the CardioCheck and I am questioning the sanitary status of the Pipettes(little capilaries/collectors). I didn't give it a 5 star rating not because the product is bad,(by the way: CardioCheck has a very high rating with government controlling agencies) but because of the way I received the items within the package. I ordered my CardioCheck Blood Testing Device kit with 6ct HDL 6ct Triglyceride 6ct Total Cholesterol 25ct Pipettes and 20ct Lancets. This was what Amazon had listed as a complete 'Kit'. When I received the shipment, (it was shipped from Test Medical Systems at Home, Inc. a supplier of the CardioCheck equipment located in Ohio), it came through Amazon in a medium shipping box containing a smaller sealed box with the CardioCheck instrument, three sealed boxes containing the individual test strips (HDL,Trigs,TotChol) and a plastic bag (it was one of those sandwich bags with a foldover flap-not a ziploc) containing 18 lancets and 18 Pipettes. My first thought was just how sanitary were the Pitettes seeing that they were in an 'open' sandwich bag (sealed with a piece of scotch tape) that has small holes/tears in it, within a shipping box containing the other 4 items along with shipping/packing material to fill the void withing the box; secondly, why did I get shortchanged in the quantity of Pipetts and Lancets? So I went to Amazon and searched for the Pipettes and there it lists a 'sealed' container with 25 collectors. (See: PTS #5655 Plastic Capillary (qty:25); Collect 15ul of Blood for Cardio Chek Analyzer Test Strips.) Now my thoughts were really confused in that one can order the Pipetts individually and they come in a sealed plastic container but here I was looking at an slighty open sandwich (with holes) and the Pipetts themselves were loose and unsealed. So I made a few phone calls, first to CardioCheck headquarters in Indianapolis, the Customer service person was so helpful, she listened to my issues and was also concerned so they (CardioCheck) are sending me a new set of sealed Lancets and Pipetts. She did not have an answer as to why the amount of Lancetts and Pipetts were at 18 ea when Amazon's description listed them as 25ct and 20ct respectively. I checked with Amazon's website (my orders) while I was on the phone, and looking at my past orders saw that it was shipped from 'TestMedicalSystems@Home, Inc' and the person at CardioCheck said I would have to call them and ask them the same questions; but that she was also going to pass this along to her Quality Control department. Next I called customer service at Test Medical Systems at Home, Inc, and explained the issue to them, the person looked up my Amazon order and confirmed that it was packaged and shipped from them. The person on the phone told me that they get the Pipettes and Lancets in a box of 100 count, then someone picks the items from the larger box and places them into small plastic bags for shipment. I stated that seeing that they were representing medical equipment, wouldn't it be advisable to have sanitary contitions to handle these devices seeing that one has to prick their finger, draw some blood and then place the pippette at the point of wound to draw in the blood? Just how sanitary was that I said, where someone sticks their hand into a larger box of supplies (where they wearing gloves? silence), grabs a handfull, probably places them on a counter or table top (was the area cleaned first?: silence) counts out the amount and then places them into a plastic sandwich bag (are the bags sanitary?: silence)... It seems that the whole issue of packaging the components is subject to review. I mentioned that just the other day in the news was an article about a drug resistant germ that is prevelant within hospitals (especially in the UK) where people are being submitted to a hospital, come in contact with these germs and because their body resistance is low, come down with life threating uncurable infections resulting in death); why would a company who represents medical equipment where a user must injur themself (prick their finger tip) draw blood from an open wound and then place a susceptible sanitary instrument at the point of wound to collect blood and place that person in a position of possibly getting an infection as a result? How do I know if the person handling these instruments during packaging doesn't have some illness, maybe HIV? Their reply was "well you have to wipe or clean off your finger first", I responded that yes but what good is that when the instrument you use (based on their description of handling) is sanitarially questionalable. Even wiping the outside tip of the pipette is not enough because germs can remain within the little opening capilary and be passed on. They said well that is how they package their supplies. I suggested that they run the questions I proffered to their management team and recommended that they change their policy and proceedures. Why subject someone with a forced open wound to use unsealed questionalbe devices. After reading this, one might say, why are you worried, the germs should be dead by the time you get them, Oh yea, but don't believe that, some scientists today are finding living bacteria at a depth of 3,600 meters beneath the Antarctic ice sheet dating back to an estimated 400,000 years, so germs don't always die off readly. By the way, CardioCheck does not do the ordering or shipping directly to consumers, it is handled through third party companies and the best way is to search the web for supplies.

Used this before my doctor visit, doctor was impressed it was almost exact. The lancets were to difficult for me to figure out. I just broke them open and jabbed my finger with it.