Imipramine hydrochloride and desipramine hydrochloride as new reagents for detection of microamounts of blood in urine.

Benzidine and o-tolidine, the hazardous carcinogens are still in use for the detection of blood in urine. Development of safer substitutes are of paramount importance. Unfortunately, the alternate available reagents lack specificity, sensitivity and reproducibility. Imipramine hydrochloride (IPH) and desipramine hydrochloride (DPH) are proposed as new reagents for the detection of blood in urine. Both the reagents impact to blood a green-blue to blue color, in the presence of acetic acid and hydrogen peroxide and the development of this color is explored under laboratory conditions. IPH or DPH compares favorably with benzidine and multistix methods. Both the reagents are relatively inexpensive, and have required sensitivity and stability. The proposed reagents offer advantages of relatively low sensitivity to endogenous vegetable peroxidases; hence, the test can be performed on samples taken from patients who are on a normal diet and the results are reproducible. Besides, the reagents, are non-carcinogenic and can replace benzidine and o-tolidine without any extra procedural difficulties as they also exhibit a similar blue color.