Clinical urine tests is an examination of urine for certain physical properties, solutes, cells, casts, crystals, organisms, or particulate matter, and mainly serves for medical diagnosis. The word is a portmanteau of the words urine and analysis. Urine culture and urine electrolyte levels are part of urinalysis. There are three basic components to urinalysis: gross examination, chemical evaluation, and [|microscopic examination]. Gross examination targets parameters that can be measured or quantified with the naked eye, including volume, color, transparency, odor, and specific gravity. A part of a urinalysis can be performed by using urine test strips, in which the test results can be read as color changes. Another method is light microscopy of urine samples.
Target parameters
Urine test results should always be interpreted using the reference range provided by the laboratory that performed the test, or using information provided by the test strip/device manufacturer.
Color
The following are examples of some urine colors and their causes.
*Reddish-orange: Intake of certain medications or other substances.
*Rusty-yellow to reddish-brown: Intake of certain medications or other substances.
*Dark brown: Intake of certain medications or other substances; damaged muscle from extreme exercise or other widespread damage, possibly medication related; altered blood; bilirubinuria; intake of phenolic substances; inadequate porphyrin metabolism; melanin from melanocytic tumors; presence of an abnormal form of hemoglobin, methemoglobin.
*Brownish-black to black: Intake of substances or medications; altered blood; a problem with homogentisic acid metabolism, which can also cause dark whites of the eyes and dark-colored internal organs and tissues ; Lysol. Paraphenylenediamine is a highly toxic ingredient of hair dye formulations that can cause acute kidney injury and result in black urine.
Green, or dark with a greenish hue: Jaundice ; problem with bile metabolism. Recent surgery requiring high doses of propofol infusion. The use of a medication that is similar to phenazopyridine for the relief of urinary symptoms.
Other colors: Various substances ingested in food or drink, particularly up to 48 hours prior to the presence of colored urine.
Smell
The odor of urine can normally vary from odorless to a much stronger odor when the subject is dehydrated and the urine is concentrated. Brief changes in odor are usually merely interesting and not medically significant. The urine of diabetics experiencing ketoacidosis may have a fruity or sweet smell.
Urine may be tested to determine whether an individual has engaged in recreational drug use. In this case, the urinalysis would be designed to detect whatever marker indicates drug use.
History
and her husband, Alfred Free, pioneered dry reagent urinalysis, resulting in the 1956 development of Clinistix, the first dip-and-read test for glucose in urine for patients with diabetes. This breakthrough led to additional dip-and-read tests for proteins and other substances. The invention was named a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society in May 2010.
Methods
When doctors suggest/prescribe a urinalysis, they will request either a routine urinalysis or a routine and microscopy urinalysis, with the difference being a routine urinalysis does not include microscopy or culture.
Ictotest – this test is used to detect the destruction of old red blood cells in the urine.
Hemoglobin test – this tests for hemolysis in the blood vessels, a rupture in the capillaries of the glomerulus, or hemorrhage in the urinary system, which cause hemoglobin to appear in the urine.
