Diastix and Ketodiastix a New Semiquantitative Test for Glucose in Urine

Trials have been made with Ketodiastix, testing the Diastix component, which is a new semiquantitative test for glucose in urine, by comparing it with Clinitest and Testape. The subjects who carried out the tests were diabetic children and their parents, and urine samples containing a range of concentrations of glucose were presented as unknown specimens for testing. The subjects found that Ketodiastix was simple and acceptable. It was as sensitive as Tes-Tape and at least as reliable as Clinitest in registering nil and low concentrations of glucose in urine. Difficulty was experienced by some subjects In matching colour blocks corresponding to 1% and 2% glucose concentrations, and this led to mistakes in making the correct reading for urine samples containing 1% and 4% of glucose. Limited practice led to improvement In correctly reading urine samples containing 1% of glucose, but not In reading those containing 4% of glucose. Clinitest was the most reliable semiquantitative test, particularly at high urine concentrations of glucose. Tes-Tape appeared unreliable as a semiquantitative test, failing to distinguish mild from heavy glycosuria (0.5% from 4%).