The quantification method of urinary hemoglobin has not been established. We examined whether a reagent(Eiken, Tokyo) used to immunologically assay fecal hemoglobin could be utilized to quantify urinary hemoglobin. The coefficients of variation were 2.2〜3.0% in the reproducibility of one-run assays using urine and 4.3〜5.7% in that of multiple-run assays using the standard sample of hemoglobin. Urinary hemoglobin was unstable and decreased in a time- and temperature-dependent manner. However, addition of the hemoglobin stabilization buffer(50mM phosphate buffer, pH6.4)(Eiken) to urine made urinary hemoglobin stable. Urinary hemoglobin levels did not change significantly when stored at 4℃ for 7 days or at −80℃ for 30 days. The hemoglobin concentration(mean±SD) of urine showing 1＋, 2＋ and 3＋ with a test strip was 385±165(n＝30), 1070±499(n＝40) and 4130±2770ng/ml(n＝20), respectively. Urinary hemoglobin did not correlate with urinary albumin, transferrin, immunoglobulin G, N-acetyl-β-D-glucosaminidase nor α 1 microglobulin. These results suggest that this immunological method using the hemoglobin stabilization buffer can be utilized for quantification of urinary hemoglobin, which may provide clinically important information.

*1Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine, The University of Tokyo Hospital, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655