Electrochemical Diagnosis of Urinary Tract Infection Using Boron-Doped Diamond Electrodes

Efficient detection of sodium nitrite in human urine could be used to diagnose urinary tract infections rapidly. Here, we demonstrate a fast and novel method for the selective detection of sodium nitrite in different human urine samples using electrolysis with a bare boron-doped diamond electrode. The measurement is performed without adding any other species, such as enzymes, and uses a simple electrochemical approach with an oxidation step followed by reduction. In the present study, we pay attention to the reduction potential range for the measurement, which is substantially different from many previous literature reports that focus on the oxidation reaction. The determination of added sodium nitrite based on cyclic voltammetry or differential pulse voltammetry is employed for two pooled urine samples and three individual urine matrices. From this, the linear response ranges for sodium nitrite detection are 0.5-10 mg/L (7.2-140 μmol/L) and 10-400 mg/L (140-5800 μmol/L). The results from these urine samples convert well to the calibration curve, with a limit of detection established as 0.82 mg/L (R2 = 0.9914), which is clinically relevant.