What is it?
It is a physical, chemical, and microscopic evaluation of your urine. Thanks to it, a wide variety of disorders can be detected and controlled, such as urinary tract infections, kidney disease, kidney stones, diabetes, bladder cancer, or kidney cancer.
What is analyzed?
In a routine urine analysis, the following are mainly analyzed:
- Color (*some medications can affect urine color)
- Appearance (whether clear or cloudy)
- Odor
- pH level (acidity)
- Substances that should not be present (blood, excess protein, glucose, ketones, and bilirubin)
- The presence of cells, crystals, urinary casts, and mucus
- Presence of germs or bacteria
There are exceptional cases, such as when urine tests are performed for pregnancy confirmation or drug tests; in these cases, specific hormones and substances are taken into account.
Why is it performed?
- To evaluate your overall health: surely on some occasion your doctor has sent you for a urine test as part of a routine medical examination, pre-surgical preparation, or during a hospital stay.
- To diagnose a disease: If you experience abdominal pain, back pain, frequent or painful urination, your doctor will most likely suggest a urine test to diagnose if there is any pathology with these symptoms.
- To monitor a disease: If you have a kidney disease such as a urinary tract infection or kidney stones, your doctor may send you for urine tests to monitor the disease and treatment. In these cases, Lit-Control allows you to carry out this monitoring from home thanks to Lit-Control pH Meter.
What types of analyses are there?
There are different methods for collecting your urine, and the medical professional will inform you of the most suitable one for your case:
- 24-hour urine collection: primarily used in general medicine to assess kidney function. Basically, all urine produced over 24 hours must be collected in a container which is then taken to the laboratory.
- Clean-catch urine sample: this method is used to prevent germs from the genitals from being present in the collected urine sample. This is mainly when a bacteriological analysis or urine culture is to be studied.
- Simple sample: this is the most common practice, used to analyze certain substances and urinary pH.
- Lit-Control method: this innovative method allows urine pH to be analyzed from the patient's home. Unlike other known methods such as test strips, Lit-Control provides a detailed and highly reliable result, and the patient can report all results in the private area of their website and submit them to the doctor when deemed appropriate. This method is mainly used in cases of kidney stones, where control is necessary to prevent recurrence.
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