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Why it's done
By Mayo Clinic staffUrinalysis is a common test that's done for several reasons:
- To assess your overall health. Your doctor may recommend urinalysis as part of a routine medical examination, pregnancy checkup, pre-surgery preparation, or on hospital admission to screen for a variety of disorders, such as diabetes, kidney disease and liver disease.
- To diagnose a medical condition. Your doctor may suggest urinalysis if you're experiencing abdominal pain, back pain, frequent or painful urination, blood in your urine or other urinary problems. Urinalysis may help diagnose the cause of these symptoms.
- To monitor a medical condition. If you've been diagnosed with a medical condition, such as kidney disease or urinary tract disease, your doctor may recommend urinalysis on a regular basis to monitor your condition and treatment.
Other tests, such as pregnancy testing and drug screening, also may require a sample of urine. These tests are separate from urinalysis. They test for substances in the urine that urinalysis typically doesn't include. For example, pregnancy testing measures the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG). Drug screening tests are tailored to detect specific drugs or their metabolic products, depending on the purpose of the testing.
References
- What you need to know about urinalysis. National Kidney Foundation. www.kidney.org. Accessed Dec. 5, 2010.
- Wu X. Urinalysis: A review of methods and procedures. Critical Care Nursing Clinics of North America. 2010;22(1):121.
- Echeverry G, et al. Introduction to urinalysis: Historical perspectives and clinical application. Methods in Molecular Biology. 2010;641:1.
- Ferri FF. Laboratory Tests and Interpretation of Results. In: Ferri FF. Ferri's Clinical Advisor 2011: Instant Diagnosis and Treatment. Philadelphia, Pa.: Mosby Elsevier; 2011. http://www.mdconsult.com/books/about.do?eid=4-u1.0-B978-0-323-05610-6..C2009-0-38600-6--TOP&isbn=978-0-323-05610-6&about=true&uniqId=230100505-53. Accessed Dec. 10, 2010.
- Meng MV, et al. Urologic Disorders. In: McPhee SJ, et al. Current Medical Diagnosis & Treatment 2011. 50th ed. New York, N.Y.: The McGraw-Hill Companies; 2011. http://www.accessmedicine.com/resourceTOC.aspx?resourceID=1. Accessed Dec. 10, 2010.
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