The diagnostic performance of human urinary dipsticks to estimate urine pH, specific gravity (SpG), and protein in horses: are they reliable?
Abstract: Urinalysis is a critical diagnostic test which is performed in routine veterinary medicine practice. In this diagnostic test, semiquantitative measurement of urine biochemical substances is carried out using urinary dipstick. In the current study, we evaluated the diagnostic performance of human urinary dipsticks to estimate pH, specific gravity (SpG), and protein in 80 urine specimens collected from horses. These parameters were measured using two commercial human dipsticks (KP and MN in abbreviation) and quantitative reference methods. The reference methods for pH, SpG, and protein were pH meter, handheld refractometer, and pyrogallol red method, respectively. The correlation between the semiquantitative dipstick analysis and quantitative reference methods was determined using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Results: In general, our results revealed that the both human urinary dipsticks are unreliable tests for urinary pH, SpG, and protein content in horses. The analysis indicated that there was a poor correlation between the urine dipsticks and reference method (KP: r = 0.534 and MN: r = 0.485, Ps < 0.001) for protein. Additionally, there was a weak correlation between the results of pH measured using the urine dipsticks and reference method (KP: r = 0.445 and MN: r = 0.370, Ps < 0.001). Similar findings were obtained for SpG (KP: r = 0.285, MN: r = 0.338, Ps < 0.001). The estimation of proteinuria using the human dipsticks in horses lacked specificity, as many false positive protein results were obtained. Conclusions: We observed that the human commercial urinary dipsticks used in this study were not reliable to correctly estimate urine protein, SpG, and pH in horses.
Publication Date: 2019-07-12 PubMed ID: 31300054PubMed Central: PMC6626356DOI: 10.1186/s12917-019-1998-2Google Scholar: Lookup
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- Evaluation Study
- Journal Article
- Clinical Examination
- Clinical Pathology
- Clinical Study
- Comparative Study
- Correlation Analysis
- Diagnosis
- Diagnostic Imaging
- Diagnostic Technique
- Disease Diagnosis
- Equine Health
- Horses
- Laboratory Methods
- pH
- Protein
- Urine Analysis
- Veterinary Care
- Veterinary Medicine
- Veterinary Practice
- Veterinary Research
- Veterinary Science
Summary
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This research examines the efficacy of human urinary dipsticks in estimating pH, specific gravity, and protein in horse urine, and concludes they are unreliable for this purpose.
Research Objective
- The aim of the research was to investigate the accuracy of human urinary dipsticks used to measure three parameters — pH, specific gravity (SpG), and protein — in horse urine. The reliability of these standard diagnostic tools, typically used in human patients, was evaluated against quantitative reference methods designed for animal testing.
Methodology
- 80 urine samples were collected from horses and tested using two different commercial human urinary dipsticks (named KP and MN in the study).
- The results from the dipstick tests were compared to those of reference methods for each parameter: a pH meter was used for pH, a handheld refractometer was used for SpG, and the pyrogallol red method was used for protein levels. The correlation between the dipstick analysis and the reference methods was determined through Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient.
Results
- Generally, the human urinary dipsticks proved unreliable in accurately estimating the pH, SpG, and protein content in the horse urine samples.
- There was only a poor correlation between the protein results from the dipstick tests and the reference method (KP: r = 0.534 and MN: r = 0.485, P<0.001).
- There was a weak correlation between the pH results from the dipstick tests and the reference method (KP: r = 0.445 and MN: r = 0.370, P<0.001).
- Similar findings were obtained for SpG, with the correlations being the weakest (KP: r = 0.285, MN: r = 0.338, P<0.001).
- Further, use of human dipsticks for detecting protein in horse urine often produced false positive results, indicating a serious lack of specificity.
Conclusion
- The study emphasised that human commercial urinary dipsticks were not reliable for accurate estimation of urine protein, SpG, and pH in horses.
- The inaccuracies and unreliability of these dipsticks in the veterinary context makes clear the need for specific diagnostic tools designed for animal urinalysis.
Cite This Article
APA
Hekmatynia F, Eskandarzadeh N, Imani M, Rezaei M, Zamani-Ahmadmahmudi M.
(2019).
The diagnostic performance of human urinary dipsticks to estimate urine pH, specific gravity (SpG), and protein in horses: are they reliable?
BMC Vet Res, 15(1), 242.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12917-019-1998-2 Publication
Researcher Affiliations
- Department of Clinical Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, P.O Box: 76169133, Kerman, Iran.
- Department of Basic Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran.
- Department of Clinical Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, P.O Box: 76169133, Kerman, Iran.
- Department of Clinical Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, P.O Box: 76169133, Kerman, Iran.
- Department of Clinical Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, P.O Box: 76169133, Kerman, Iran. zamani_2012@uk.ac.ir.
MeSH Terms
- Animals
- Female
- Horses / urine
- Humans
- Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
- Male
- Proteinuria / diagnosis
- Proteinuria / veterinary
- Reagent Strips / standards
- Sensitivity and Specificity
- Specific Gravity
- Urinalysis / instrumentation
- Urinalysis / methods
- Urinalysis / veterinary
Conflict of Interest Statement
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
References
This article includes 16 references
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Citations
This article has been cited 3 times.- Yadav SN, Ahmed N, Nath AJ, Mahanta D, Kalita MK. Urinalysis in dog and cat: A review. Vet World 2020 Oct;13(10):2133-2141.
- Kovarikova S, Blahova J, Steffenova V, Vaskova N, Jahn P. Exploratory Study of the Urine Protein-to-Creatinine Ratio in Apparently Healthy Horses. Vet Sci 2025 Aug 21;12(8).
- Back JP, Bicca-Marques JC. Urinary health indicators in folivorous-frugivorous primates with and without food supplementation. Primates 2025 Jan;66(1):129-141.
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