Reliability of A Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Assessment of Urine Hormones and Metabolites

Abstract

BackgroundMass spectrometry allows for analysis of multiple hormone and organic acid metabolites from small urine volumes; however, to assess the full extent of daily hormone production, 24-hour urine collections are usually required. The aims of this study were, first, to confirm that mass spectrometric analysis of an array of hormones and organic acids would yield similar results in both liquid and dried urine, and, second, to determine if collection of four dried spot urine samples could be substituted for a 24-hour collection when measuring reproductive hormones. MethodsTwo study populations were included in this prospective observational study. Twenty individuals collected both a spot liquid urine and dried urine on filter paper to analyze eight organic acids. A second group of 26 individuals collected both a 24-hour urine and four dried spot urines during waking hours throughout the same day for evaluation of 17 reproductive hormones and metabolites; data from 18 of these individuals were available to compare liquid versus dried urine results. Dried urine was extracted, hydrolyzed, and derivatized before analysis by mass spectrometry; all analytes from dried urine were normalized to urine creatinine. ResultsReproductive hormone results from dried and liquid urine were in excellent agreement with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) greater than 0.90; comparison of dried to liquid urine for organic acids showed good to excellent agreement (ICC range: 0.75 to 0.99). Comparison between the 4-spot urine collection and 24-hour urine collection methods showed excellent agreement (ICC>0.9) for 14 of the 17 urine metabolites and good agreement for the others (ICC 0.78 to 0.85) with no systematic differences between the two methods of collection. ConclusionsThe burden of urine collection can be reduced using collection of four spot dried urines on filter paper without compromising comparability with hormone results from a 24-hour urine collection. A large number of urine analytes can be assessed from the dried urine with similar results to those from liquid urine. Given the ease of sample handling, this 4-spot dried urine assay would be useful for both clinical assessment of patients and for large epidemiologic studies.

A novel home-use culture mechanism for identifying microbial load in urine samples

“…As a primary goal, we have also demonstrated that bottom culture is feasible and the number of colonies formed is comparable to that of a standard top streak. Recently, many tests have been based on analysing dried urine samples, where the samples can be transported on a lter card (16). One of our future aims is to study the e cacy of this system with dried urine samples on a lter card.…”