Quantitative Proteinuria Screening UV Method to Check Kidney Health Status

Abstract

At end-stage renal failure need of dialysis or a kidney transplant is a must to treat the renal failure; which cannot be a better solution for developing countries like Ethiopia. However, if chronic kidney disease is early detected it is possible to prevent, control disease progression and minimize complication of the disease. Chronic kidney disease can be screened using a measurement of protein level in urine. Urine tests are noninvasive and enough to get general information about kidney status. The existing urinalysis methods for kidney function tests are a semi-quantitative method (dipstick), and immunological based assay methods. Dipsticks are not sensitive for microalbuminuria (albumin in the urine between 30 and 300 mg/day), measures qualitatively and not precise whereas Immunological based assays are very expensive and complex. The main Objective of this research is to develop a quantitative proteinuria screening UV method to check kidney health status based on protein denaturing properties. Different laboratory experiments have been conducted to determine the best denaturing agent and check the performance of the proposed method. 23% Diluted Sulfuric acid reagent was used as best denaturing reagent to detect protein in the urine. Thirty-three standard solutions prepared to resemble patient urine sample with different protein concentration. The method proposed in this study has a linear equation (y = 0.00695x + 0.18932, r = 0.9958), moderate sensitivity, 94.93 % accuracy and can be used for the quantitative determination of low and high levels of Protein in human urine for screening and diagnosing kidneys condition.