Six methods for determining urinary protein compared

Inter-laboratory surveys have shown that "routine methods" of urinary protein determination are often unsatisfactory. Therefore, we compared six frequently used methods for determination of protein in urine with respect to linearity, within-batch and between-batch precision, comparative bias, and practicability. We assayed dilutions of human and bovine albumin and serum, and fresh and lyophilized human urine. We find that the AACC Selected Method has poor practicability and poor precision under routine conditions, but good linearity. The sulfosalicylic acid/biuret technique is also impracticable, requires a large sample, and is not linear at low concentrations of urine protein. The Coomassie Brilliant Blue technique has a narrow range of linearity and poor precision. The sulfosalicylic acid/sodium sulfate turbidimetric method is not precise and cannot be standardized with bovine materials. The Ponceau-S technique has good performance characteristics and practicability, and we recommend it for routine laboratory use.