Nitrate versus Nitrite

NITRATE/NITRITE

Another confusion regarding using nitrate versus nitrite that comes to my notice.  I will just try to explain, hope this will help you.

NITRATE is a salt of nitric acid.  Nitrate generally refers to a class of drugs, in the form of isosorbide mononitrate and isosorbide dinitrate, given for angina pectoris, chest pain.  It is never to be written in Urinalysis or any lab test concerning urinary tract infection.

NITRITE is a salt of nitrous acid, which is a laboratory data for determining urinary tract infection or UTI.  A positive nitrite test indicates that bacteria may be present in significant numbers in urine.  This is always meant and said in urinalysis portion of the laboratory test.

BOTTOM LINE

1.      Nitrite -- the “i” corresponds with UTI.  So, for UTI and urinalysis, it is always nitrite.

2.      Nitrate -- a drug for angina pectoris.where "a" corresponds to angina.