Two low-cost digital camera-based platforms for quantitative creatinine analysis in urine.

Area of Science:

• Clinical Chemistry
• Biomedical Engineering
• Analytical Chemistry

Background:

• Creatinine is a vital biomarker for assessing renal and muscular health.
• Existing creatinine quantification methods often involve complex equipment, costly reagents, or specialized expertise.
• There is a need for accessible, rapid, and accurate creatinine measurement techniques.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate two novel, home-made platforms for rapid creatinine assessment in human urine.
• To evaluate the performance of these platforms compared to established methods.
• To provide accessible diagnostic tools for clinical analysis.

Main Methods:

• Development of two distinct analytical platforms: a CD Spectroscope (CDS) and a Computer Screen Photo-assisted Technique (CSPT).
• Quantification of creatinine in standard solutions and real human urine samples.
• Validation using capillary electrophoresis and Partial Least-Squares (PLS) regression analysis.

Main Results:

• Both CDS and CSPT demonstrated excellent linearity (r(2) = 0.9967 and 0.9972) within the 160 μmol L(-1) to 1.6 mmol L(-1) range.
• Detection limits were found to be 89 μmol L(-1) for CDS and 111 μmol L(-1) for CSPT.
• High repeatability was achieved with intra-day (1.7-2.9%) and inter-day (3.6-6.5%) variations, and mean relative errors below 10% in real urine samples.

Conclusions:

• The developed CDS and CSPT platforms offer a rapid, cost-effective, and accurate alternative for creatinine quantification in human urine.
• These methods circumvent the need for expensive apparatus and complex procedures, enhancing accessibility in clinical settings.
• The validated performance suggests their potential utility in routine clinical analysis for renal and muscular function assessment.