What can a urine test reveal?

Everyone is familiar with urine test, which is a routine examination of a part of the body. Urine tests are often done during physical examinations or when pregnant women have prenatal checkups. Because it can measure a lot of data about the body. For example, when you are weak, a urine test can also detect the nutrients that your body lacks. A urine test can also be used to detect other symptoms of disease in the body. So what can a urine test reveal?

Urinalysis examination includes urine color, transparency, pH, red blood cells, white blood cells, epithelial cells, casts, protein, specific gravity and qualitative urine sugar.

(1) Urine color: The color of normal urine is mainly caused by urochrome, whose daily excretion is generally constant, so the depth of urine color changes with the amount of urine. Normal urine is straw yellow, while abnormal urine color may change due to factors such as food, medicine, pigments, and blood.

(2) Transparency: Normal fresh urine is mostly clear and transparent, except for women's urine which is slightly turbid. If left for too long, it will become slightly turbid. This is because the acidity and alkalinity of the urine change, and the mucus protein, nucleoprotein, etc. in the urine gradually precipitate.

(3) Acidity and alkalinity: Normal urine is slightly acidic, but can also be neutral or slightly alkaline. The acidity and alkalinity of urine depends largely on the type of diet, medications taken, and the type of disease.

(4) Cells: The cells that are clinically important in urine are red blood cells, white blood cells and small round epithelial cells. ①Red blood cells. Red blood cells may occasionally be seen in normal human urine, with no more than 3 per high-power field of view after centrifugation. If there are a large number of red blood cells in the urine, it may be caused by kidney bleeding, urinary tract bleeding, renal congestion, etc. Vigorous exercise and blood circulation disorders can also lead to increased glomerular permeability, resulting in the appearance of protein and red blood cells in the urine. ②White blood cells. There are a small number of white blood cells in normal human urine, with no more than 5 per high-power field of view in centrifuged urine. When abnormal, the urine contains a large number of white blood cells, indicating that there are suppurative lesions in the urinary tract, such as pyelonephritis, cystitis and urethritis. ③Small round epithelial cells. In normal urine, a few small round epithelial cells with fatty degeneration can sometimes be found. In case of glomerulonephritis, the number of epithelial cells in the urine increases. If there is a lesion in the renal tubules, many small round epithelial cells may appear.

(5) Casts: Normal urine contains only a very small amount of albumin, no casts, or occasionally a few transparent casts. If one cast appears in the urine, it can reflect the condition of at least one renal unit, which is a sign of kidney disease and is of great significance for diagnosis.

(6) Protein: It is generally believed that the amount of protein excreted by a normal person per day is 40 to 80 mg, and at most 100 to 150 mg. Routine qualitative tests are negative. Pathological proteinuria is seen in glomerulonephritis, pyelonephritis, acute renal failure, hypertensive nephropathy, diabetic nephropathy, pregnancy poisoning, lupus nephritis, radiation nephritis and other inflammatory lesions in the kidney, poisoning, tumors, etc.

(7) Specific gravity: The specific gravity of urine is approximately between 1.015 and 1.025. The urine specific gravity of infants and young children is relatively low. The urine specific gravity is affected by age, water intake and sweating. The level of urine specific gravity mainly depends on the concentrating function of the kidneys, so measuring urine specific gravity can be used as one of the renal function tests.

(8) Qualitative analysis of urine sugar: Normal people may have trace amounts of glucose in their urine. The daily urine sugar content is 0.1 to 0.3 grams, and the maximum does not exceed 0.9 grams. The qualitative test is negative. Positive urine sugar is often seen in diseases such as renal glucosuria, diabetes and hyperthyroidism. Urinalysis and urine test Urinalysis includes urine routine, midstream urine culture, three-cup urine test, Addis count, urine protein quantification and other items.