My recent review of the Duo-Care for testing both blood pressure and blood glucose got me thinking.

I wasn’t thrilled with that combination. But many of us with diabetes have high cholesterol. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a meter that tests both blood glucose and cholesterol?

We can, of course, get our cholesterol levels checked at a lab or a doctor’s office. But we could check these levels much more often and conveniently if we do the tests at home.

We can do that with a hand-held meter called the CardioChek from Polymer Technology Systems (PTS) in Indianapolis, Indiana. Using different strips, it can test total cholesterol, HDL (good) cholesterol, and triglycerides. It no longer sells strips to test LDL (bad) cholesterol, blood glucose, or ketones.

The CardioChek recently replaced the Bioscanner 2000, which also tested creatinine. PTS no longer supports the Bioscanner 2000, except for the creatinine test.

Companies are usually enthusiastic to send me meters for my review. However, PTS was an exception.

After my first request, a company representative wrote me, “we will not be sending a CardioChek for your review. The product is targeted toward men and women with heart disease.”

That response amazed me, and I went back and looked again at the CardioChek website. I responded that I couldn’t help but notice that in addition to lipids the CardioChek also measures ketones and glucose -- as it did at the time, but not in February 2009 as I update this article.

I pointed out that “only people with diabetes measure ketones and glucose.” I said that there was something strange in the company’s reluctance to have the CardioChek reviewed in a diabetes publication, particularly because people with diabetes have a high rate of heart disease.

A former PTS employee told me that not targeting people with diabetes is “kind of foolish.” I still don’t understand the company’s initial refusal to send me a meter for review, but eventually they did send me one.

The meter seems to be so valuable, however, that the PTS marketing director asked me to return it after I have finished my review. Along with the meter, I got three strips for testing total cholesterol.

So far I have tested my total cholesterol with the CardioChek just once. It was apparently down to 161 mg/dl from the 207 mg/dl level at my doctor’s office just a month earlier.

This is such a difference that I don’t know yet which level to trust. Still, I am pleased that my total cholesterol level is below the 200 mg/dl target of the National Cholesterol Education Program.

To convert mg/dl cholesterol values to mmol/L divide them by 38.7, according to the National Cholesterol Education Program. Since I hadn’t set up the CardioCheck correctly for the U.S., I had to multiply the 4.17 mmol/L value I got by 38.7. A call to three people at PTS customer service confirmed my arithmetic.

Total cholesterol was the only level that I was able to test with the CardioChek. But it’s not the most important cholesterol level. LDL cholesterol is, and the CardioChek doesn't even test it.