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Medical Forum / General / General / July 2008Urine Glucose question
After finishing a short course of steroids and waiting 5 days for things to settle down, I decided to test my urine glucose using the Bayer "Diastix" strips. Thankfully the results were negative (both fasting and two hours after a sugary breakfast). My question is about the Diastix product: according to the product label, if it registers a trace amount, representing 0.1% glucose present in the urine, the corresponding estimate for blood glucose is 100 mg/dl. Is this even possible for a urine test to be this sensitive? I had thought, based on the literature out there, the blood glucose would have had to been at least 180 mg/dl at some point in time for any glucose to appear in the urine. Have they somehow now made these strips more sensitive than historically was the case? Or is the "100 mg/dl" claim on the product label just marketing? Thanks, Steve > After finishing a short course of steroids and waiting 5 > days for things to settle down, I decided to test my urine glucose [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > > Steve It's not a matter of the strips being more or less sensitive, but whether you spill glucose into your urine. I'm hardly an expert, but though the chances this will happen increase as your blood glucose increases, it wouldn't be much to hang your hat on in a quantitative sense. IOW, if you want to know what your blood glucose is, you should get your blood tested. Steve  SignatureMark & Steven Bornfeld DDS http://www.dentaltwins.com Brooklyn, NY 718-258-5001 >> Have they somehow now made these strips more sensitive than >> historically was the case? Or is the "100 mg/dl" claim on >> the product label just marketing? >It's not a matter of the strips being more or less sensitive, but >whether you spill glucose into your urine. I'm hardly an expert, but >though the chances this will happen increase as your blood glucose >increases, it wouldn't be much to hang your hat on in a quantitative >sense. IOW, if you want to know what your blood glucose is, you should >get your blood tested. Thanks. I agree. I've always had normal fasting glucose (last tested six months ago), and my doctor did not have enough of an index of suspiscion to order a glucose test subsequent to the course of steroids. Hence my interest in using the strips (which the pharmacist thought was a perfectly normal thing to do after a steroid treatment). I think I'm fine with not testing blood glucose until my next periodic test. Steve > After finishing a short course of steroids and waiting 5 > days for things to settle down, I decided to test my urine glucose [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > > Steve The urine glucose is not sensitive nor specific for diagnosing or monitoring diabetes. The renal threshold can be variable and altered in disease. It is not recommended for personal use. The units are urine concentration units and would be difficult to correlate it with blood levels are the urine concentration in the bladder urine is variable to the renal threshold and sugar load over time. Trace amounts of glucose in the urine are abnormal which is the lower limit of detection with strips and normally no glucose is present. >The urine glucose is not sensitive nor specific for diagnosing or >monitoring diabetes. The renal threshold can be variable and altered [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >concentration in the bladder urine is variable to the renal threshold >and sugar load over time. >Trace amounts of glucose in the urine are abnormal which is the lower >limit of detection with strips and normally no glucose is present. Yes, thanks. I know I could not monitor diabetes in this manner, but my thinking is by seeing negative results on the urine strips I reduce the index of suspicion that there is steroid diabetes. Clearly I think there is a range of hyperglycemia that would constitute steroid diabetes but still wouldn't register on these strips. Not sure exactly what that range is but it could be something like 140 to 200 mg/dl non-fasting blood glucose. (You would not want to use it for monitoring diabetes, although in the past people did -- they would treat until the urine is negative, and maintain treatment at that level. It's better than no monitoring but not by much: you could be holding blood glucose at a level that is still too high, or you could induce hypoglycemia and have no way to measure it.) Steve >My question is about the Diastix product: according to the >product label, if it registers a trace amount, representing >0.1% glucose present in the urine, the corresponding estimate >for blood glucose is 100 mg/dl. You realize that 100 mg/dL is 0.1% ?? bob >You realize that 100 mg/dL is 0.1% ?? Right, thanks. This explains something. Steve > After finishing a short course of steroids and waiting 5 > days for things to settle down, I decided to test my urine glucose [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > > Steve As I understandf it is preferred that a person has their blood glucose level tested not the urine if one wants a really good handle on their glucose levels. You don't have to go to the Doctor; rather, all one needs to do is go to RiteAid or Wally Mart and purchase one of the kits with a finger pricker, a bottle of strips with an insert chip, and a reader unit. The kits aren't that costly especially compared to having a Doctor ordering one for you. This way you can get not only a fasting glucose values but also some post meal values. This will help the Doc if you record the values and give you a good lesson in what your blood glucose levels are currently. IMHO 50 tests for the price of one ordered by the Doc is a great deal. Do the math..............Trig And yes talk to your Doctor. |
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