Does hematuria mean nephritis? Don't panic, you will understand after reading this article

Hematuria is a common and characteristic clinical manifestation of IgA nephropathy. It often occurs a few hours or 1 to 2 days after an upper respiratory tract infection (a few of which are accompanied by intestinal or urinary tract infections, etc.). Therefore, it has been called "infection-synchronous hematuria."

01: What is “hematuria”? Is hematuria urine that is “red like blood”?

In fact, hematuria includes both blood or red urine that we can see with our naked eyes, and "microscopic hematuria" that we usually find when we do urine tests in the hospital. It cannot be identified by the naked eye, and only through the doctor's use of a microscope can it be determined that there are more than normal numbers of red blood cells in the urine. This kind of hematuria is called "microscopic hematuria".

Macroscopic hematuria usually comes on with "vigorous force", sometimes it is red "black and purple", sometimes it is like "soy sauce", which is really scary. Many people will be very nervous or even panic when they suddenly find such hematuria, and go to the hospital immediately for treatment; however, the existence of microscopic hematuria is "silent" and "painless", and people do not pay enough attention to microscopic hematuria. An epidemiological survey of the general population in our country found that the prevalence of microscopic hematuria is nearly 4%, which means that among the 1.3 billion Chinese population, nearly 52 million people "unknowingly" have microscopic hematuria.

0 2: Does hematuria mean nephritis?

Actually, this is not the case. There are many possible reasons for hematuria. First, it may be due to pollution. For example, bleeding caused by hemorrhoids, menstruation, or uterine or vaginal reasons may contaminate urine, which may cause bloody urine, but this is not true hematuria. Secondly, it may also be due to taking certain drugs, vegetables, pigments, dyes, reagents and other pigment-containing substances, which may cause red urine, such as orange-red urine in tuberculosis patients after taking rifampicin. Finally, other diseases besides kidney disease, such as urinary tract bacterial infection, kidney tuberculosis, kidney stones, bladder stones, bladder tumors or urinary system malformations, may also cause hematuria.

0 3: What to do if you find hematuria

After the occurrence of hematuria, the most correct thing to do is to go to the hospital as soon as possible. For hematuria, the most important test is the urine red blood cell phase test. Through the urine red blood cell phase test, we can determine the source of hematuria. Simply put, it is to be able to determine whether the hematuria is caused by kidney disease or non-kidney disease. The mechanism of this test is: when the kidney is diseased, the red blood cells in the blood flow are "squeezed" out of the diseased kidney tissue into the urine, so "strange-shaped" deformed red blood cells appear in the urine, and these deformed red blood cells can be clearly seen through the urine red blood cell phase test.

Of course, it is also necessary to learn more about related knowledge to facilitate self-observation and self-care. If you are a female patient, you should first think about whether your menstruation has come. If not, pay attention to whether you have frequent urination, urgency, pain when urinating, or fever, back pain, whether there is a bacterial infection or stones?

For male patients, they should pay attention to whether they have prostatitis, hemorrhoids, etc. More patients may find microscopic hematuria during physical examinations, and at this time they may feel puzzled, why do I have hematuria when I have no symptoms at all?