Combined gel filtration, biuret/copper method compared with an immunochemical method for urinary protein measurement

We compared an immunochemical method specific for plasma proteins with a chemical method, in which interfering substances are separated by gel filtration and "total" urinary protein is determined by the biuret reaction followed by reaction of protein-bound copper with diethyldithiocarbamate after a second gel filtration to remove nonprotein-bound copper. More than 250 24-h urine samples were analyzed by each method. There was linear agreement and a correlation of 0.96 between the two methods, but urinary protein values determined by the immunochemical method, especially for patients with multiple myeloma, were lower than by the chemical method.