Health Care : Current Reviews

Ascorbic acid in the urine of children and adults -observation from the ER, more than just a vitamin?

35^th Global Healthcare Summit

January 27-28, 2025 Webinar

Elena Bukovetzky*, Raneen Sliman and Ilham Morani

Ziv Medical Center, Israel

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Health Care Curr Re

Abstract:

Statement of the Problem: Vitamin C (ASC) is an essential component of the human diet, found in a wide range of food products. Although ASC is regard merely as a supplement, it has a broad effect on many systems and processes in the body and could be considerate a substance with drug-like properties. ASC plays a therapeutic role in conditions such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and infectious disorders. In clinical laboratories, ASC is cause a significant interference, disrupting the interpretation of results. ASC can lead to falsely negative (FN) results for glucose, blood, nitrite and bilirubin when using urine test strips. These FN results may contribute to misdiagnoses of urinary tract inflammation or kidney disorders We reviewed 1398 general urine samples from pediatric patients and 7186 samples from adults. ASC levels were measure using IRIS Analyzer from Beckman Coulter. We compared the percentage of expected negative results for ASC with the percentages of positive ASC results (at high and very high concentrations of 20 and 40 mg/dl), in adult and pediatric emergency room (ER) urine screening. Our results showed negative results in 88% of the adult samples and in only 64% of the pediatric ER samples. High concentrations (20 mg/dl) of ASC were observed in 7.6% of adults and 14.4% of children. Very high concentrations (40 mg/dl) of ASC were observed in 6.54% of adults and 21.2% of children urine. The difference in ASC concentrations at both 20 and 40 mg/dl levels between pediatric and adult ER samples is statistically significant (p<0.005). There is still much uncertainty and many open questions about the effects of ASC. It is important to continue investigating the significant differences in ASC concentrations in the urine of adults and children, as well as it the impact of these differences on laboratory test results.