I have read in a diabetic guideline for pets entitled Diabetic Mellitus in the Dog and Cat by Dr. Abrams-Ogg that adding a drop of hydrogen peroxide to a urine sample can change the ketone d-hydroxybutyrate to acetoacetate which can then be detected by a urine ketone test strip. Can you verify this? (Note: Since d-hydroxybutyrate is a primary ketone involved in a DKA crisis, the ability to transform and then detect it in a urine test it would benefit all diabetics, humans and pets.)

The procedure which you found in the veterinary article on diabetes was in fact tried on diabetic patients back in 1984. The report by Oster.J.R. and others in Clinical Care Volume 7, page 80, concluded that the use of hydrogen peroxide did not increase sensitivity enough for clinical purposes and that results were erratic. Shortly after that the sensitivity of the test strips, which are still responsive only to acetoacetic acid, was greatly increased so that conversion of 3,beta-hydroxybutyrate was not required. Nowadays of course there are also meters to measure acetone in exhaled air or ketones simultaneously with glucose in fingerstick blood; but these are cumbersome and really only of use during recovery from overt ketoacidosis.

DOB
Additional comments from Jeff Hitchcock, The Editor:

The new Precision Xtra meter can measure both blood glucose and blood ketones.

JSH