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Detecting creatine excreted in the urine of swimming athletes by means of Raman spectroscopy

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Abstract

High-level sport requires analysis of athletes’ metabolic conditions in order to improve the training. Raman spectroscopy can be used to assess urinary composition advantageously when compared to conventional methods of urinalysis. In this work, Raman spectroscopy has been employed to detect creatine in urine of professional swimmers before and after training compared to sedentaries. It has been collected urine samples from five swimmers before and immediately after 150 min of swimming and submitted to Raman spectroscopy (830 nm excitation, 350 mW laser power, 20 s integration time) and compared to the urine from a control group (14 sedentary subjects). The Raman spectra of urine from four swimmers after training showed peaks related to creatine at 829, 915, 1049, and 1397 cm−1, besides peaks referred to urea, creatinine, ketone bodies, and phosphate. A spectral model estimated the concentration of creatine to be from 0.26 to 0.72 g/dL in the urine of these athletes. The presence of this metabolic biomarker in the urine of some swimmers suggests a metabolic profile influenced by the diet, supplementation, individual metabolism, and the self-response to the training. Raman spectroscopy allows a rapid and reliable detection of creatine excreted in the urine of swimming athletes, which may be used to adjust the nutrition/supplementation of each individual as well as the individual response and energy consumption depending on the type and duration of the training.

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Acknowledgments

L. P. Moreira acknowledges CAPES—Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel for the scholarship. The researchers thank the swimming team and the sedentary subjects at the Universidade Santa Cecília (UNISANTA).

Funding

This study was partly funded by FAPESP—São Paulo Research Foundation (Grant no. 2009/01788-5). L. Silveira Jr. received research fellowship from CNPq—National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (Grant no. 305680/2014-5).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidade Santa Cecília – UNISANTA, Rua Oswaldo Cruz, 277, Santos, SP, 11045-907, Brazil

    Letícia Parada Moreira, Débora Dias Ferraretto Moura Rocco, Alexandre Galvão da Silva, Marcos Tadeu Tavares Pacheco & Landulfo Silveira Jr

  2. Center for Innovation, Technology and Education – CITE, Universidade Anhembi Morumbi - UAM, Parque Tecnológico de São José dos Campos, Estr. Dr. Altino Bondensan, 500, Sao Jose dos Campos, SP, 12247-016, Brazil

    Marcos Tadeu Tavares Pacheco & Landulfo Silveira Jr

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  1. Letícia Parada Moreira
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  2. Débora Dias Ferraretto Moura Rocco
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  3. Alexandre Galvão da Silva
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  4. Marcos Tadeu Tavares Pacheco
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  5. Landulfo Silveira Jr
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Correspondence to Landulfo Silveira Jr.

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This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University Santa Cecilia—UNISANTA (protocol no. 1.133.024).

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Moreira, L.P., Rocco, D.D.F.M., da Silva, A.G. et al. Detecting creatine excreted in the urine of swimming athletes by means of Raman spectroscopy. Lasers Med Sci 35, 455–464 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10103-019-02843-z

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