URINE TEST AND IT'S SIGNIFICANCE

URINE TEST
Most times when people hear 'bring your urine' they think of pregnancy test or infection. While this is correct, that urine can be used for testing pregnancy or infection, I like you to know that's not the only thing you can test urine for. Urine can also be used for culture to identify bacteria or can be screened for many other parameters.

Urinalysis as it is medically called is a simple way of screening the urine for some actors of medical importance. These actors include:

1. Blood: finding blood in the urine of a woman may not pose any medical threat if she is menstruating. Blood in urine can indicate an infection or other problem with the kidney.

2. Glucose: when found in urine, this is not a diagnosis for diabetes. We Will trash this in our next blog. But sometimes little glucose in urine is not a great source of worry, like other parameters when present it is an indication for further test especially blood glucose test.

3. Protein: an indication for either infection, hypertension, liver or kidney problem.

4. Leucocyte: these are white blood cells. Their presence in urine calls for urine culture.

5. Ketone: I refer to this test as a glucose starvation indicator. Ketone bodies are the by product release when the body uses fat as an alternative source of energy in the absence of glucose. This is evident in starvation, prolonged exercise, low carbohydrate intake or in diabetes (due to lack of uptake of glucose from the blood).

6. Bilirubin: indicator of problem with the  red blood cells (in jaundice) or the liver.

7. Urobilinogen: same as bilirubin indicating problem with the liver or jaundice(there are different types of jaundice as a result of its different causes). Also urobilinogen presence in urine can be as a result of treatment with drugs that acidify urine.
*Normally the urine contain little amount of urobilinogen, but positive urinalysis test for urobilinogen and bilirubin calls for liver function test and of course other test such as hepatitis test and blood count.

Other parameters in urinalysis are:

8. Ascorbic acid
9. PH
10. Specific gravity