Urinalysis

Standard home drug testing kits usually detect illegal substance abuse for only one type of a drug at a time resulting in a failure to accurately assess a teenagers history of drug use. Even small amounts of urine leakage can be drawn into the vacuum tube containing the blood specimen and contaminate it. Urine specimens should be placed in a ziplock” biohazard bag that is in turn placed in another biohazard bag with any other samples from the patient.
To diagnose medical conditions - The set of tests is used to diagnose kidney infection, uncontrolled diabetes muscle breakdown, the presence of protein in the urine, measuring red blood count numbers in the urine, drug screening, and kidney inflammation.
If the dipstick result is positive for blood but no RBCs are found in the urinary sediment when analyzed on urine microscopy, then that indicates myoglobinuria (caused by rhabdomyolysis or myoglobinuric self water test renal failure) or hemoglobinuria (caused by infections such as Plasmodium falciparum or Clostridium welchii, transfusion-related reactions, or paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria).

By addressing the most common human errors in dipstick testing — timing, volume of sample, and lighting — the technology could deliver faster test results to patients and reduce the burden on overextended medical laboratories and primary care doctors.
If the dipstick test or the microscopic test shows white blood cells, red blood cells, or bacteria (possible signs of a kidney or bladder infection), the doctor may send the urine to a lab for a urine culture to identify the bacteria that may be causing the infection.
The change from urine microscopy to urinary flow cytometry has been accompanied by a significant decrease in imprecision ( 15 ). Because urinalysis test strips are often used for checking urinary flow cytometry data ( 11 ), there is a need for a more quantitative evaluation of urinalysis test strips.

A urine test strip showing positive for blood can also indicate hemoglobinuria , which is not detectable using a microscope due to the lysis of red blood cells in the urinary tract (particularly in alkaline or dilute urine), or intravascular hemolysis Under normal conditions the formation of haptoglobin -hemoglobin complexes prevents glomerular filtration, but if the hemolysis is extensive haptoglobin's uptake capacity is exceeded and hemoglobin can appear in urine.
Doctors can also tell a lot from how your urine looks and smells For example dark urine could be a sign of dehydration; a cloudy appearance may suggest infection; if the urine is a reddish colour there may be blood in it; and a sweet smelling urine can be a sign of diabetes.
Red blood cells that stick together and form red blood cell casts usually indicate problems with the glomeruli, tiny ball-shaped structures in your kidneys that help filter blood and prevent the loss of valuable substances, such as blood cells and proteins.

A simple, color-changing paper test, dipped into the specimen, can measure levels of glucose, blood, protein and other chemicals, which in turn can indicate evidence of kidney disease, diabetes, urinary tract infections and even signs of bladder cancer.
Usually, your kidneys prevent protein from passing from your blood into your urine: loops of capillaries (glomeruli) that filter blood allow small particles to pass into the urine while retaining larger particles, such as protein, and kidney tubules reabsorb the smaller proteins that were able to escape.