Urine-based immuncassay for urocirtub 3 abd duagbisus if skeeo aobea

A method for the detection of UCN III peptide in urine comprising:

• providing a substrate for retaining a monoclonal antibody, wherein said substrate is suitable for exposure to urine;
• providing said monoclonal antibody
• irreversibly affixing said monoclonal antibody to said substrate to create a test strip;
• providing a urine specimen;
• exposing said test strip to said urine;
• removing excess urine from said test strip;
• providing a polyclonal antibody solution;
• treated said urine-exposed test strip with said polyclonal antibody solution;
• and,
• determining if the polyclonal antibody is present on said test strip
• wherein the presence of polyclonal antibody is reported as a positive test for the presence of UCN III peptide and the absence of polyclonal antibody is reported as a negative test for the presence of UCN III peptide.

A method for diagnosing obstructive sleep apnea in a subject consisting of:

• a) providing a biological sample from the subject;
• b) determining an amount in the sample of a Urocortin III peptide;
• c) identify specific antibodies or fragments thereof establishing the presence and/or amount of a UCN III peptide;
• d) detecting the specific binding necessary for determining a sample's UCN III peptide level;
• e) isolating specific antibodies or fragments thereof establishing the presence and/or amount of a UCN III peptide;
• f) comparing the amount of the Urocortin III peptide in the sample, if present, to a control level of the Urocortin III peptide;
• and
• g) diagnosing the subject as having obstructive sleep apnea, or a risk thereof by correlation of the amount of Urocotin III peptide with said control level of the UCN III peptide to determine whether the subject suffers from OSA.