Dipstick analysis of urinary protein. A comparison of Chemstrip-9 and Multistix-10SG

The Boehringer-Mannheim Chemstrip-9 and Ames Multistix-10SG urine dipstick assays for the detection of proteinuria were evaluated. Chemstrip-9 was more precise than Multistix-10SG (13 inconsistencies vs 32 among duplicate pairs). Precision was poorest with the group of inexperienced technologists using Multistix-10SG (Chemstrip-9 yielded two inconsistencies vs 15 for Multistix-10SG) with the use of urine supplemented with protein standard. In the evaluation of both protein-supplemented and consecutively acquired patient specimens, Multistix-10SG and Chemstrip-9 performed in a statistically similar fashion regarding sensitivity and predictive value of a negative test result: supplemented sample sensitivity, patient sample sensitivity, and a predictive value of a negative test result of 90.3%, 46.8%, and 68.6%, respectively, for Multistix-10SG compared with 80.6%, 31.5%, and 63.5%, respectively, for Chemstrip-9. We conclude that neither test is sufficiently sensitive for the detection of low levels of proteinuria (1+ range) to function as a screening test for renal disease.