Evaluating the Feasibility of Using Preserved Urine for Testing Urine Chemistry Analytes to Reduce Pre-Analytical Variability

AACC 2022 -- Collection of 24-hr urine specimens can be challenging, especially if the urine needs to be collected using a splitter device to collect two different sample types on the same collection. For samples collected at ambient conditions and shipped ambient, we currently recommend collection with 10 g of boric acid preservative for analysis of total protein and no preservative for all other analytes, including creatinine and albumin. For these patients, we provide a urine-splitter device to collect urine into two different containers (with and without preservatives). The samples are then transferred into respective tubes and sent to the lab for analysis. This study was conducted to evaluate if a single collection method with boric acid would be suitable for analyzing urine chemistry analytes to eliminate the multiple pre-analytical steps and thus avoid any pre-analytical errors.