blood ketone musings.....

[frizzyrazzy]

does anyone know why blood ketones are measured only mmol/L while urine ketones are measured in mg/dL? (see the chart here:
http://www.childrenwithdiabetes.com/d_0n_030.htm )

and for that matter, why is the US one of the few places that uses mg/dL for bg and not mmol/L like the rest of the world?

[albasmom]

I can't answer your questions, but i also find it strange that you use mg/dl. The first times i came here I thought your numbers were pretty high :p

[StillMamamia]

We use mg/dl

This is what I found, hope it helps:o (it's about cholesterol, though...)

http://www.healthboards.com/boards/archive/index.php/t-38696.html

[owensmom]

Most of the world has converted to the metric system whereas the US still uses the imperial system which means that before we can use any of your new technology, pump upgrades, etc. they have to convert it first - it takes forever.

[frizzyrazzy]

but why then have none of us had any problem adjusting to mmol/L for ketones? We all know that .1 is ok and 8.0 is bad. We just took those as the values that they gave us and accepted it. Why can' they just conver BG to mmol/L and we'd all get used to that too?

[Seans Mom]

but why then have none of us had any problem adjusting to mmol/L for ketones? We all know that .1 is ok and 8.0 is bad. We just took those as the values that they gave us and accepted it. Why can' they just conver BG to mmol/L and we'd all get used to that too?

Oh no you didn't just say that !!! :eek: I remember them telling us in math class years ago that we were all going to have to learn the metric system because that was the way everything here was going. I couldn't, just couldn't do it back then and now at 44 yrs. old you want me to???? NOOOOO, you did NOT just say that.

[frizzyrazzy]

Oh no you didn't just say that !!! :eek: I remember them telling us in math class years ago that we were all going to have to learn the metric system because that was the way everything here was going. I couldn't, just couldn't do it back then and now at 44 yrs. old you want me to???? NOOOOO, you did NOT just say that.
rofl...I know..I remember that too. Way back in 2nd grade when they told us YOU WILL HAVE to learn the metric system.

but think - a 2 liter bottle of coke is what? 2 liters. You don't try to think of it any other way, in ounces, because it's always been just a 2 liter bottle. And 2 liters means something, you can say 2 liters and know how much your talking about. Same thing for how we all weigh food in grams now that we carb factor. I bet if I said that I had a 100 gram weight banana you'd all know about how big that was, because we've all gotten used to weighing that way. And I have no clue how much that is in ounces. How about your hard drive and computers. Everything is metric - kilobytes and gigabytes.

I just found it funny that the only ketone meter out there reads in mmol/L and not mg/dl when conventional urine ketones were always in mg/dl. Maybe because people didn't equate the color of the strip with an actual number??? I don't know - we only used them for a few months before the blood ketone meter came out so I don't recall.

[moco89]

Most of the world has converted to the metric system whereas the US still uses the imperial system which means that before we can use any of your new technology, pump upgrades, etc. they have to convert it first - it takes forever.

mg/dL is not an imperial measurement. Milligrams is a metric unit, and deciliter is a metric unit too.

mmol/L (millimoles/Liter) pertains directly to the field of chemistry, which works out better for doctors and chemists, in general. As some of you may remember a MOLE is avogadro's number (6.602 x 10^23) of any single type of element. 6.602 x 10^23 atoms of an element, is also the molecular weight of the element (which is located on each space on the periodic table).

In the US, I would assume that we "converted" to our own system to eliminate the decimal point, and also to have a more vast range in terms of numbers. Germany also uses mg/dL, too. There are probably even more countries that use the measurement, too. We are not alone!

[Mama Belle]

mg/dL is not an imperial measurement. Milligrams is a metric unit, and deciliter is a metric unit too.

mmol/L (millimoles/Liter) pertains directly to the field of chemistry, which works out better for doctors and chemists, in general. As some of you may remember a MOLE is avogadro's number (6.602 x 10^23) of any single type of element. 6.602 x 10^23 atoms of an element, is also the molecular weight of the element (which is located on each space on the periodic table).


If you say so! My head is spinning:o

[moco89]

If you say so! My head is spinning:o

Imperial units are things like inches, feet, pound, ounce, yard, ton, etc.....

The mg/dL may be a US/Germany/some other countries' thing, but mg/dL does not have imperial units used (in order to find out the concentration of glucose in the blood stream). Since no imperial units are used, this cannot be an imperial measurement. Plus, a select few other countries in the world use the mg/dL measurement. The mg/dL measurement is not exclusive to the US.

Ex. Germany (look at the numbers on the meters)

http://www.accu-chek.de/produkte/de/blutzuckermesssysteme/blutzuckermesssysteme.html

Vs.

UK (look at those numbers)

http://www.accu-chek.co.uk/gb/

[Mama Belle]

Imperial units are things like inches, feet, pound, ounce, yard, ton, etc.....

The mg/dL may be a US/Germany/some other countries' thing, but mg/dL does not have imperial units. Since no imperial units are used, this cannot be an imperial measurement. Plus, a select few other countries in the world use the mg/dL measurement. The mg/dL measurement is not exclusive to the US.

Ex. Germany (look at the numbers on the meters)

http://www.accu-chek.de/produkte/de/blutzuckermesssysteme/blutzuckermesssysteme.html

Vs.

UK (look at those numbers)

http://www.accu-chek.co.uk/gb/

I get the whole imperial measurement versus metric thing. I understood that part. It was around about "As some of you may remember a MOLE is avogadro's number (6.602 x 10^23)" that you lost me. Basically I was just trying to make the point that you're crazy smart and I am not.:D

[moco89]

I get the whole imperial measurement versus metric thing. I understood that part. It was around about "As some of you may remember a MOLE is avogadro's number (6.602 x 10^23)" that you lost me. Basically I was just trying to make the point that you're crazy smart and I am not.:D

Cool!

I think that the ketones are measured in mmol/L, because hospitals use mmol/L for measuring ketones in the blood.

As I said earlier, the mmol/L system works better for doctors, chemists, and pharmacists. The mmol/L measurement has an advantage in places such as hospitals, when blood measurements are out of whack-especially electrolytes-like in DKA. The mmol/L measurement provides a faster and more efficient way to calculate replacement nutrients, chemicals, and medicines in the medical community, due to the "relationship with the mole". The mg/dL measurement for ketones isn't really used in hospitals or the medical community, so why convert to it? The doctors can work more efficiently w/ the mmol/L measurement. Also, the number range for ketones would be MUCH DIFFERENT than BG ranges/levels if mg/dL were used.

[sugarmonkey]

As far as the metric/imperial thing. We use metric here in nz, but i still think of most things in imperial. eg peoples height are feet and inches, not cm. I was taught in metric at school, but when my kids were born I wanted to know their weight in pounds, not grams.
I do weigh Phillips food in grams though.

[StillMamamia]

mg/dL is not an imperial measurement. Milligrams is a metric unit, and deciliter is a metric unit too.

mmol/L (millimoles/Liter) pertains directly to the field of chemistry, which works out better for doctors and chemists, in general. As some of you may remember a MOLE is avogadro's number (6.602 x 10^23) of any single type of element. 6.602 x 10^23 atoms of an element, is also the molecular weight of the element (which is located on each space on the periodic table).

In the US, I would assume that we "converted" to our own system to eliminate the decimal point, and also to have a more vast range in terms of numbers. Germany also uses mg/dL, too. There are probably even more countries that use the measurement, too. We are not alone!

Bless you!:D

[Seans Mom]

I get the whole imperial measurement versus metric thing. I understood that part. It was around about "As some of you may remember a MOLE is avogadro's number (6.602 x 10^23)" that you lost me. Basically I was just trying to make the point that you're crazy smart and I am not.:D

See? I don't even get the whole imperial measurement thingie vs metric thingie. :confused:lol Just give me a number or color or whatever and don't expect me to know anything else about it. I don't want to know, it hurts my head. Ignorance is bliss and all that stuff. :D Don't even ask me why they use stones as weight. I'd hate to think how many of those and how big they'd have to be to get the scale to even out w/ me on the other side. :eek: