Questions about old Roche Coaguchek verses new Roche Coagucheck monitor

[OinkHeart]

Hi Valve Replacement friends,
I have been using a Roche Coaguchek monitor for home INR monitoring. It worked for 5 years and then started giving me error codes. Roche told me to throw it away. I now need to buy a new one and there is a new model out but it costs $600-700 Roceh Coaguchek Vantus. Pretty painful purchase. I am worried if I buy a used older monitor on ebay it will bite the dust in a couple years. How long have you had your Roche Coaguchek monitor? Is there anyone out there using the Vantus? I wonder if it performs the same as the older model but it just has the bluetooth technology. If you use a Vantus, do you think it's worth it to have paid the $ for the newest model? If bluetooth is the only redeeming feature on it maybe I will take my chances on Ebay...

Janea

 

[Warrick]

I just have the older XS but from what Ive read about the Vantus apart from the bluetooth you can have the same things like graphs etc with a phone app like Inrlog.

My meters 4 yrs old and Id hope it does more than 5 yrs,
both meters use the same strips so as far as inr results go should be the same.

Secondhand meters coming up for sale on auction sites in NZ are like hens teeth and they normally come from people who have tried it once or twice and not had the tenacity to learn the self testing process properly and simply given up, so Id say its worth the risk just ask if its been stored with the batteries removed- thats a killer of secondhand meters

 

[pellicle]

Hi

have been using a Roche Coaguchek monitor for home INR monitoring. It worked for 5 years and then started giving me error codes.

changed the batteries?
cleaned the inside under the blue lid?

Roche told me to throw it away.

of course they did ...

I now need to buy a new one and there is a new model out but it costs $600-700 Roceh Coaguchek Vantus.

is that this one?

Coaguchek INRange Meter + 24 Test Strips

Pretty painful purchase.

how so, that's about the same price as 2012 XS prices....

I am worried if I buy a used older monitor on ebay it will bite the dust in a couple years.

quite possible

How long have you had your Roche Coaguchek monitor?

since 2012

I wonder if it performs the same as the older model but it just has the bluetooth technology.

if its what I think it is, then why would it not? the strips are the same ... a CD played on any CD player sounds pretty much the same.

Best wishes

 

[kevanndo]

I started getting error codes regularly on my daughter's meter after a few years of use. Even though the meter showed the batteries as being fully charged, I decided to change them anyway to see if that would solve the issue. That did, indeed, completely solve the problem.

 

[dick0236]

I have been using a CoaguchekXS since June 2014 with no maintenance other than changing batteries a few times. My meter is supplied by Coaguchek Patient Services as part of my program with them. I asked, a year or so ago when they would routinely send out a new meter to replace my current one. They said they routinely replace meters after seven years of use unless there is a meter problem.......that means I've got about 1-1/2 years left on mine. I kinda hate to see that happen because the newer ones have "bells and whistles" that I will not likely understand.

 

[Bina]

My experience with the Coaguchek XS is extensive. Living in Canada, I was able to buy the monitor in 2007 for the sale price of $ 500.00
It has been my best friend for the past 12 years and I couldn't imagine how many trips to the blood lab I would have made over the years had I not purchased this monitor.
The couple of times that I saw weird error codes was due to low battery power. Last year I got a free control test kit from Roche offices in Montreal, and my monitor still passes all quality control checks.
If needed in the future, I would gladly purchase another one. Well worth the initial cost price.

 

[Protimenow]

I spokek to Roche Coagulation Services (or whatever they call it) last year. They told me that they don't sell the Vantus - it is only available when the service is being used. If patients stop using the Roch service, the meter must be returned. I don't know how the Vantus has become available, because they seem to have a very tight handle on supply.

I have/had a Coaguchek XS pro - the professional model, and it started giving me errors. I called Roche support, and they told me to stop using it.

I also have a CoaguChek XS, but rarely use it because I prefer the Coag-Sense meter.

I'm not sure what the rate of failure/death for these meters is, but I know that some clinics and doctor's offices make extensive use of this meter for testing patient INRs. I assume that these can make thousands (or tens of thousands) of tests without failure. I suspect that, if yours failed, this is probably an exception. As others have suggested, you may try changing batteries (get fresh batteries when you change them) or try running it from a power supply (if you have one), to determine if it's a power problem. Also, try cleaning (if you can) the slot where the strip is inserted (you may be able to find instructions for doing this), before you consider that the meter is 'dead.'

I buy most of my meters (I haven't bought one for a few years) on eBay. Just pick a seller with a good feedback rating, who offers a DOA or return warranty, and you should be okay with the new meter.

If you want to spend $700 or so, some vendors offer the new meter - the InRange - supposedly not available in the United States for about that amount of money. (FWIW - the Vantus doesn't show prothrombin time - if you care about this factor).

 

[pellicle]

I started getting error codes regularly on my daughter's meter after a few years of use. Even though the meter showed the batteries as being fully charged, I decided to change them anyway to see if that would solve the issue. That did, indeed, completely solve the problem.

it could have been simply pulling them and putting them in again, but none the less if you get a year out of 4 AAA batteries that's cheap running.

 

[pellicle]

Well worth the initial cost price.

seconded

 

[Protimenow]

I hadn't used my XS for 3 or 4 years, because I trusted my other meter. When I tried using it with recently acquired, but out of date strips, to my surprise the batteries hadn't corroded inside the meter, and the meter actually turned on, but didn't have enough juice to run a test.

New batteries brought it back to life.

I didn't bother updating the calendar -- and this made it possible to check with expired strips. This was an exercise in futility - the expired strips didn't yield results that were anywhere close to those of my Coag-Sense. But the error was no surprise - the strips WERE expired, so I got what I expected.

I'm still hoping to get some current strips for the XS so I can again compare it to blood draws and to my Coag-Sense meter - mostly out of curiosity.

 

[OinkHeart]

I have been using a CoaguchekXS since June 2014 with no maintenance other than changing batteries a few times. My meter is supplied by Coaguchek Patient Services as part of my program with them. I asked, a year or so ago when they would routinely send out a new meter to replace my current one. They said they routinely replace meters after seven years of use unless there is a meter problem.......that means I've got about 1-1/2 years left on mine. I kinda hate to see that happen because the newer ones have "bells and whistles" that I will not likely understand.

This is helpful information. Thank you!!

 

[OinkHeart]

I spokek to Roche Coagulation Services (or whatever they call it) last year. They told me that they don't sell the Vantus - it is only available when the service is being used. If patients stop using the Roch service, the meter must be returned. I don't know how the Vantus has become available, because they seem to have a very tight handle on supply.

I have/had a Coaguchek XS pro - the professional model, and it started giving me errors. I called Roche support, and they told me to stop using it.

I also have a CoaguChek XS, but rarely use it because I prefer the Coag-Sense meter.

I'm not sure what the rate of failure/death for these meters is, but I know that some clinics and doctor's offices make extensive use of this meter for testing patient INRs. I assume that these can make thousands (or tens of thousands) of tests without failure. I suspect that, if yours failed, this is probably an exception. As others have suggested, you may try changing batteries (get fresh batteries when you change them) or try running it from a power supply (if you have one), to determine if it's a power problem. Also, try cleaning (if you can) the slot where the strip is inserted (you may be able to find instructions for doing this), before you consider that the meter is 'dead.'

I buy most of my meters (I haven't bought one for a few years) on eBay. Just pick a seller with a good feedback rating, who offers a DOA or return warranty, and you should be okay with the new meter.

If you want to spend $700 or so, some vendors offer the new meter - the InRange - supposedly not available in the United States for about that amount of money. (FWIW - the Vantus doesn't show prothrombin time - if you care about this factor).

Is the Inrange a roche meter?

 

[OinkHeart]

My experience with the Coaguchek XS is extensive. Living in Canada, I was able to buy the monitor in 2007 for the sale price of $ 500.00
It has been my best friend for the past 12 years and I couldn't imagine how many trips to the blood lab I would have made over the years had I not purchased this monitor.
The couple of times that I saw weird error codes was due to low battery power. Last year I got a free control test kit from Roche offices in Montreal, and my monitor still passes all quality control checks.
If needed in the future, I would gladly purchase another one. Well worth the initial cost price.

I would love a control test kit from Roche are you with a blood monitoring company? I fear Roche won't send me a control test kit because I'm not with a blood monitoring company. Roche doesn't like it when you buy their machines outside of their company and use it on your own.

 

[tom in MO]

I would love a control test kit from Roche are you with a blood monitoring company? I fear Roche won't send me a control test kit because I'm not with a blood monitoring company. Roche doesn't like it when you buy their machines outside of their company and use it on your own.

My CoaguChek monitor comes from Allere by way of EdgePark. My insurance company specifies the provider. I don't have a blood monitoring provider, I call in my results to my cardio's clinic. The meter is free, you pay for the strips.

 

[pellicle]

Is the Inrange a roche meter?

yes

 

[pellicle]

I would love a control test kit from Roche are you with a blood monitoring company?

when I started I did this every reading, then when I cut across to my own measurements (and dosing) I did it every 3 months, then every six months, now I haven't done it for a while. Difference was typically less than ± 0.2 INR units. So clinically insignificant. I wasn't as dedicated with data gathering in the first weeks after my surgery, then I gave up documenting for a while.

date	Coagu INR	lab INR
7/12/2011​	2.5​
12/12/2011​
14/12/2011​
20/12/2011​		1.9​
30/12/2011​		2.4​
x	x	x
14/12/2012​	3.2​	3.4​
17/12/2012​	2.7​	2.8​
20/12/2012​	2.6​
21/12/2012​	2.8​	2.8​
28/12/2012​	2.5​	2.6​
5/01/2013​	2.4​
11/01/2013​	2.3​
13/01/2013​	2.4​
21/06/2014​	2.3​	2.5​
31/01/2015​	3.0​	2.9​
3/08/2015​	2.4​	2.6​
6/02/2016​	3.0​	2.8​
8/11/2017​	2.7​	2.6​

This may sound shocking, but this has been done to death by the regulators (for it to even have gained approval) and many many researchers doing tests, for instance this one way back in the (now discontinued) days of the Coaguchek S:

and as far as I know the more modern XS (which I've used since 2012) uses the same chemistry and model as the iSTAT

plenty of this sort of data out there, but don't just google it, use google scholar to avoid all the "menshealth and vitamins" sorts of fluff.

I can send you some of the studies I pulled down if you're unable to find anything.

Best Wishes

 

[Protimenow]

I spokek to Roche Coagulation Services (or whatever they call it) last year. They told me that they don't sell the Vantus - it is only available when the service is being used. If patients stop using the Roch service, the meter must be returned. I don't know how the Vantus has become available, because they seem to have a very tight handle on supply.

I have/had a Coaguchek XS pro - the professional model, and it started giving me errors. I called Roche support, and they told me to stop using it.

I also have a CoaguChek XS, but rarely use it because I prefer the Coag-Sense meter.

I'm not sure what the rate of failure/death for these meters is, but I know that some clinics and doctor's offices make extensive use of this meter for testing patient INRs. I assume that these can make thousands (or tens of thousands) of tests without failure. I suspect that, if yours failed, this is probably an exception. As others have suggested, you may try changing batteries (get fresh batteries when you change them) or try running it from a power supply (if you have one), to determine if it's a power problem. Also, try cleaning (if you can) the slot where the strip is inserted (you may be able to find instructions for doing this), before you consider that the meter is 'dead.'

I buy most of my meters (I haven't bought one for a few years) on eBay. Just pick a seller with a good feedback rating, who offers a DOA or return warranty, and you should be okay with the new meter.

If you want to spend $700 or so, some vendors offer the new meter - the InRange - supposedly not available in the United States for about that amount of money. (FWIW - the Vantus doesn't show prothrombin time - if you care about this factor).

This is an update to an old post.

When I wrote this a few years ago, I WAS confident in the accuracy of my Coag-Sense meter. In the last year or two, I've lost confidence in the Coag-Sense. The values that it gives me are usually significantly lower than the XS - the standard for self or clinic testing.

Although it may be comforting to believe that my INR is definitely above 2.0, I suspect that there may either be an issue that causes Coag-Sense to under-report my INR, or that it may be under-reporting values for most of its users.

In fairness, I haven't compared either meter results to a blood draw. I DID compare the XS results to other XS meters, and the Coag-Sense results to other Coag-Sense meters. Each type of meter gave an almost exact result to others of the same type (XS to XS, Coag-Sense to Coag-Sense).

When questioned about the differences, one Coag-Sense support person said 'just add 1.0 to get the XS result.' REALLY.

I rarely use the Coag-Sense. As with the millions(?) of CoaguChek XS users, I'm now pretty confident with the meter's results (allthough I may double check with the Coag-Sense if the XS shows my INR to be above 3.5 (above 3.5 or so, the XS may report higher than actual INR)).