Simultaneous determination of glucose and albumin in human urine using attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy

Abstract

The ability to quantify albuminuria and glucose is important in identifying conditions such as cardiovascular disease (CVD), chronic kidney disease (CKD), and diabetes. This study utilized Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy to analyze aqueous urine samples spiked with bovine serum albumin (BSA) and glucose at different concentrations. The aim was to determine the limit of detection of the technology using aqueous samples for the future development of a pathological prediction model. The ATR-FTIR spectra of the co-spiked samples exhibited pronounced amide I (1662 cm⁻¹) and amide II (1545 cm⁻¹) bands indicative of elevated protein along with glucose-associated bands at 1155, 1107, 1079 and 1036 cm⁻¹. Partial Least Squares (PLS) yielded promising R² values of more than 0.9 for BSA, glucose, and co-spiked glucose/protein. The limit of detection of the technique was 40.28 mg L⁻¹ for protein and 291.65 mg L⁻¹ for glucose, demonstrating the potential of the technique as a tool to identify analytes associated with pathological conditions including cardiovascular disease (CVD), chronic kidney disease (CKD), and diabetes.