Hi all! Qingling here! I apologise for the late post yeah!

This entry will be on Urine Dipstix!

The urine samples are first collected from the reception by the Health Care Attendant.
Afterwhich, they will tally the name and IC number on the container against the request form. After it is done, he/she will assign a lab number, open up the bottle cap and place them on a tray. 2 rows of 5 bottles each. The request form will be placed under the tray. The med tech will check the request forms to ensure the test ordered is correct. Patients with renal failure or request forms from the Renal Dept has to be tested using the dipsticks. Remove one strip from the dipstick bottle and replace the cap. Completely immerse all the reagent areas of the strip in the urine and remove immediately. While removing it, run the edge of the entire length of the strip against the rim of the urine container to remove excess urine. Then, compare the results with the corresponding color charts on the bottle label.

The intended use of the urine dipstick test is to provide tests for glucose, bilirubin, ketone, specific gravity, blood, pH, protein, urobilinogen, nitrite and leukocytes in urine.

The tips of the dipstick are impregnated with chemicals which react with abnormal substances in the urine to produce coloured end products. In some of the tests, the depth of the color produced is related to the concentration of the abnormal substances in urine.

Results should be reported in this manner :

For pH, the glomerulur filtrate of blood plasma is usually acidified by renal tubules and collecting ducts from a pH of 7.4 to about 6.0 in the final urine. Both normal and abnormal range is from 5 to 9.

For specific gravity, it measures the urine density. Random urine may vary from 1.001 - 1.035. Normal adults' urine with normal diet and fluid intake will have SG of 1.016 - 1.3022. Urine pH above 1.035 is either contaminated or have high glucose level.

For protein, normal protein excretion does not usually exceed 150mg/24hours or 10mg/100mL in any single specimen. Normally, no protein is detectable in urine. Color matching greater than Trace indicates proteinuria.

For glucose, dipsticks employing the glucose oxidation reaction for screening are specific for glucose but can miss other reducing sugars such as galactose and fructose.

For ketones, it should be negative in normal urine specimens. Detectable level of ketone may occur in urine during physiological stress such as fasting, pregnancy and vigorous exercise. In ketoacidosis, starvation or with other abnormalities of carbohydrate or lipid metabolism, ketones may appear in large amount before serum ketone concentration are elevated.

For blood, the significance may vary among patients. Blood is often but not always found in urine of menstruating females. It is highly sensitive to haemoglobin and thus complements the microscopic examination.

For bilirubin, there should be no bilirubin detected in normal individual. Trace amount are sufficiently abnormal to require further investigations. Thus colours that are unlike the negative or positive colour may indicate that bilirubin-derived bile pigments are present in urine sample and may be masking the bilirubin reaction.

For urobilinogen, it will detect the urobilinogen in concentration as low as 3umol/L in urine. A result of 33umol/L represents the transition from normal to abnormal.

For nitrite, it should not be detected in normal individual. Proportion of positive nitrite tests in cases of significant infection depends on how long the urine specimens were retained in the bladder prior collection.

For leukocytes, normal urine usually have negative result. Positive results are clinically significant and may be found in random specimens from female due to contamination of specimen by vaginal discharge.

Here is what i've drawn in my own notebook. This are pictures of how cells look like under microscope! Its not very bright. Sorry!

Thats basically all! Feel free to ask if you have any doubts! :D