AI Helps Me Understand

So, I've been trying to understand why my specific gravity readings taken at home are so much higher than lab values. The key is sugar. The article talked about how eventually in the final phase, after the liver is no longer doing its job, sugars begin to overflow into the fluids that are in the abdomen and then out through the bladder. Remember, the bladder is actually filtering fluids directly from the abdomen due to a combination of things that involves pressure and charge differentials. Since the liver is not turning all sugars to glucose, you end up with either sucrose or fructose overflow.

My typical specific gravity taken at home with multiple brands of strips is in excess of 1.06 - usually much higher. You get to that value by diluting the sample 2:1 or 3:1 or 4:1 and testing it with the strip. Then you can multiply to get the actual value. But labs are returning values more like 1.02

So, I asked OpenAI's chatbot:

Query: Under what conditions would a manual urine test strip show a higher specific gravity than a urinalysis machine? Response: The manual urine test strip would show a higher specific gravity than a urinalysis machine if the urine sample was too dilute or if there was a malfunction in the machine. Additionally, the manual test strip could show a higher specific gravity if the urine sample was not mixed properly prior to testing.

Query: If sucrose or glucose was present in the urine would that cause the machine to show a different value than the manual test strip?

Response: Yes, if sucrose or glucose was present in the urine, this could cause the machine to show a different value than the manual test strip. This is because certain components of urine, such as glucose and sucrose, can interfere with the accuracy of the urinalysis machine.

Query: Would the machine show a higher or lower specific gravity value than the test strip ?

Response: It would depend on the amount of glucose or sucrose present in the urine. If the amount of glucose or sucrose was high, the machine would likely show a lower specific gravity value than the manual test strip. However, if the amount of glucose or sucrose was low, the machine could show a higher or lower specific gravity value than the manual test strip.

Query: Would fructose also cause this issue?

Response: Yes, fructose can also interfere with the accuracy of the urinalysis machine, potentially causing it to show a different value than the manual test strip.

There you go. Another hole in modern test methods.