Wisdom from Urine: Understand urine routine and I will know my health!

Urine, this seemingly insignificant body excretion, is actually a direct reflection of our health status and plays the role of a "barometer" of human health.

Urinalysis, as a basic test item in the medical field, plays a vital role in assessing an individual's physiological condition. However, many people are often confused when faced with a urine test report and do not know how to interpret it. This article aims to provide readers with a detailed guide to interpreting urine test results.

First, let's focus on the physical properties of urine.

Color: Under normal circumstances, it should be light yellow to amber. If the color deviates significantly from this range, such as being too light or dark, or appearing the color of meat washing water, blood, soy sauce, tea, soybean oil, etc., we should be alert.

Turbidity: Normal urine is a clear liquid. Turbid urine is often seen in urine accompanied by flocs, pyuria or hematuria.

Smell: If there is an unusual smell, such as the smell of rotten apples, it may be a sign of certain underlying diseases.

Next, we will explore in depth the significance of various indicators in routine urine examination.

Occult blood and urine protein: These two indicators should be negative under normal circumstances. However, in certain circumstances, such as standing for a long time, exercise, fever, infection, etc., they may also be positive. Once these indicators are abnormal, we should seek help from a kidney specialist in time.

Glucose: Under normal circumstances, urine should not contain glucose. If it is positive, it is often related to poor control of diabetes.

Ketone bodies: This indicator exists only in trace amounts under normal circumstances, and its positive result may be related to conditions such as diabetic ketoacidosis, hunger, severe diarrhea, and malnutrition.

Urine bilirubin: Normal is negative, a positive result is closely related to jaundice and may indicate the presence of liver disease, requiring joint diagnosis and treatment by nephrologists and gastroenterologists.

Urine red blood cells: Damage, infection, or tuberculosis, tumors, stones and other diseases of the urinary system can lead to an increase in red blood cells in the urine. If hematuria is accompanied by frequent urination, urgency, and pain when urinating, consider urinary tract infection. If hematuria is accompanied by low back pain, consider urinary tract stones. If hematuria is accompanied by sorghum rice soup-like red urine, as well as frequent urination, urgency, and pain when urinating, consider urinary tract tuberculosis. If it is painless macroscopic hematuria, the most common cause is a urinary tract tumor, which requires urinary system angiography for diagnosis. Therefore, once an upward arrow appears on this indicator, you must visit a kidney specialist in a timely manner.

Urine white blood cells: If this indicator shows an upward arrow, it is usually related to urinary tract infection, and is also related to diseases such as prostatitis, vaginitis, and pelvic inflammatory disease.

Casts: If casts appear in the urine, it indicates substantial damage to the kidneys and you need to see a nephrologist promptly.

In order to ensure the accuracy of urine routine examination, we also need to understand how to collect urine specimens correctly.

① Before the examination, please avoid drinking large amounts of water, coffee, strong tea and other beverages.

② When collecting urine, please use a clean and dry container. It is generally recommended to use the special container provided by the hospital.

③ Please collect morning urine or random urine as required by your physician to ensure the accuracy of the test.

④ The collected urine should be sent for testing within half an hour and no later than 1 hour to ensure the freshness of the sample.

⑤ Women should avoid collecting urine during menstruation and clean the vulva before collecting to prevent the mixing of vaginal secretions. For men with long foreskin, it is best to clean the urethra before collecting urine and turn up the foreskin when collecting urine to improve the purity of the sample.

⑥ If you have taken any medication recently, please be sure to inform your doctor in advance so that the test results can be interpreted more accurately.

Please note that incorrect urine specimen collection methods may result in abnormal test results. When abnormal urine routine results are found, it is generally recommended to conduct a retest to confirm the results.

In short, urine routine examination provides us with a window to observe our own health. Once abnormalities are found in urine routine examination, whether there are symptoms or not, we should recommend consulting a kidney specialist in time so that the problem can be discovered in time and appropriate treatment measures can be taken.

To interpret urine routine results, please remember these six jingles:

Red and white blood cell proteins,

The urine sugar and ketone bodies must be clearly observed.

Red polynephritis white infection,

Protein positive kidney disease suspected.

High sugar levels may cause diabetes.

Ketone-positive acidosis.
(Liu Fei, Medical Laboratory Department, Hechuan District People's Hospital, Chongqing)