Significance of Uric Acid in the blood

The end product of purine (DNA) metabolism is uric acid. This end product is normally excreted through urine. One of the reasons doctors request for a uric acid blood test is to determine the function of the kidneys.

High levels of uric acid in the blood may indicate gout, kidney disease, high protein diets, or alcoholism. Low levels, on the other hand, may imply a liver damage, low-purine diet, or malabsorption.

If you have increased level of uric acid in your blood, you should not conclude that you have kidney disease or liver damage. Instead, you should consult your physician to tackle the reason of the abnormal level of uric acid in your blood.

Other topics of interest:
A Glance at Sensitivity Testing
High LDL and Associated Risk
Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma-- Exams and Symptoms  
Confirmatory Test for Diabetes
Urinalysis: TNTC Definition

A Glance at Sensitivity Testing

Also known as drug resistance testing, susceptibility testing and C&S, sensitivity testing is a laboratory examination that determines whether a particular antimicrobial agent (antibiotic) is effective in putting an end to the growth of the bacteria or fungi which cause the infection. 

...Every time I perform sensitivity test, I feel like a scientist who wants to discover something.

Other topics of interest:
High LDL and Associated Risk
Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma-- Exams and Symptoms
Confirmatory Test for Diabetes
Urinalysis: TNTC Definition
PSA: Prostate Specific Antigen

High LDL and Associated Risk

I had my laboratory examination at Alexian Brothers (cheaper rates compared with other laboratory clinics and hospitals) for the following tests:

UE - urinalysis
FE - fecalysis
FBS - Fasting Blood Sugar (screening test for diabetes)
Creatinine - (kidney function test)
Serum Uric Acid
Lipid Profile:
HDL
LDL
Cholesterol
Triglycerides

The test results returned normal, except for my LDL or bad cholesterol. I am not sure how it turned out to be 2.92 mmol/l when the normal range for such test is from 0 to 2.50 mmol/l. I do exercise regularly (except for a busy week). I rarely eat meat. And I am far from being obese.

I just feel uneasy because LDL is considered a risk factor of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular problem runs in our family. Ugh!

I’m thinking of going back to swimming and playing tennis. These activities were cut off because of busyness. I’m also allocating budget for Herbalife Shake. I ceased from drinking it because of my limited budget.

The reason I submitted myself for these laboratory tests was my complaint of joint pain, ergo, a request for SUA. Fortunately, my uric acid is normal. That means, there is no need for me to halt from eating nuts.

Anyway, I will just try to eat a healthy balanced diet and minimize eating pizza.

Other topics of interest:
Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma-- Exams and Symptoms
Confirmatory Test for Diabetes
Urinalysis: TNTC Definition
PSA: Prostate Specific Antigen
The Truth About Your Kidneys

Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma—Exams and Symptoms

Andy Whitfield is yet another victim of this cancer of the lymphoid tissue called non-hodgkin's lymphoma. Andy is an actor who portrays Spartacus in "Spartacus: Blood and Sand."

Non-hodgkin's lymphoma is a type of cancer with no known cause. Most lymphomas, however, are developed because of weakened immune systems. For that reason, patients who underwent organ transplant may increase their risk of having this type of cancer.

Biopsy and blood exam are two of the tests that can help doctors diagnose non-hodgkin's lymphoma. In a biopsy, the sample utilized is taken from a lymph node. However, other tissues may also be used as a specimen for biopsy exam. A complete blood count, which is a type of blood examination, is also requested to know the number of cells in the blood.

The symptoms of non-hodgkin's lymphoma we need to watch out for are night sweating, fever, swelling of lymph nodes, and unintentional weight loss. Thankfully, I don't experience these symptoms even though I think that, lately, my immune system is weakening.

Other topics of interest:

Confirmatory Test for Diabetes
Urinalysis: TNTC Definition
PSA: Prostate Specific Antigen
The Truth about Your Kidneys

Fasting Blood Sugar

Confirmatory Test For Diabetes

Photo source: http://www.healthcentral.com/images/ency/fullsize/19810.jpg

My father's FBS is slightly higher than normal. By the way, Fasting Blood Sugar, better known as FBS, is just a screening test for diabetes. Because of his elevated FBS result, he needs to undergo a follow-up evaluation to confirm diabetes.

One of the confirmatory tests for diabetes is oral glucose tolerance test. This laboratory examination would involve extraction of blood for a fasting plasma glucoses test. The patient is then given a very sweet drink, specifically a drink that contains 75 grams of sugar. At timed intervals of 1, 2 and 3 hours, blood samples are collected after taking the sweet drink.

As of this date, my father has not agreed to undergo any confirmatory tests for diabetes. But I hope that his elevated FBS result is not an indication of such metabolic disorder.

Other topics of interest:

Urinalysis: TNTC Definition
PSA: Prostate Specific Antigen
The Truth About Your Kidneys
Fasting Blood Sugar

Significance Of Acidic Urine

Urinalysis: TNTC Definition

A friend called last weekend requesting me to give him some clues about the “TNTC” written on his urinalysis report. Well, for those of you who are not aware of its definition, TNTC is an acronym for too numerous to count.

In urinalysis, we, laboratory technicians or better known as medical technologists, count the number of cellular elements, such as WBC, RBC, we find under a microscope. If the fields, however, are packed with cellular elements, we report it as TNTC or too numerous to count. We do this because it would be impractical to count their real numbers.

Other topics of interest:

PSA: Prostate Specific Antigen
The Truth About Your Kidneys
Fasting Blood Sugar
Significance Of Acidic Urine
Feces Examination—A Specialty Of

PSA: Prostate Specific Antigen

Enlargement of the prostate gland, if left untreated will lead to prostate cancer. Prostate specific antigen or PSA is one of the requested laboratory tests used to determine the condition of this gland-producing prostatic fluid. This is also used as a screening test for prostate cancer.

If the PSA result is high (normal 4 nanograms/mL), it would indicate enlargement of the prostate or prostate cancer.

They say that benign prostate hyperplasia and prostate cancer are common disorders among older men. According to doctors, you need to undergo tests for prostate gland, like PSA, when you reach the age of 40.

However, most Filipinos will not consult a physician, until symptoms become worse. Just like my father, he did not visit a urologist or undergo laboratory examination (PSA), even though he's already experiencing urinary discomfort. The result: prostate cancer + complications.

Image source: Flickr.com

Other topics of interest:
The Truth About Your Kidneys
Fasting Blood Sugar
Feces Examination—A Specialty Of
Significance Of Acidic Urine
Semen Analysis: Three-Hour Experiment

The Truth About Your Kidneys

As you know it, you have two kidneys and each kidney has 1,000,000 nephrons (functional unit of the kidney).

A normal kidney removes the metabolic waste products from your blood. It also regulates the acid-base balance, as well as the water content in the body.

The volume of blood delivered to the kidneys is approximately 1200 ml/min.

Low urine volume

In case of increased production of vasopressin (antidiuretic hormone), your kidneys produce low urine volume.

Specimen collection

Improper collection of urine sample is the most common cause of error in the creatinine clearance test.

Disease

Pyelonephritis that resulted from untreated lower urinary tract infection is commonly seen in women.

You might notice that every time you consult your doctor for a certain illness, urinalysis is one of the most requested laboratory tests. This is because almost all diseases, especially kidney problems, can affect renal function.

Other topics of interest:
Fasting Blood Sugar
Significance Of Acidic Urine
Feces Examination—A Specialty Of
Semen Analysis
Elevated Amylase

Fasting Blood Sugar

Fasting blood sugar is often the requested clinical chemistry test in order to determine your blood sugar level. It is taken after an eight-hour fasting.

Furthermore, fasting blood sugar examination requires fasting for eight hours to ensure that the system is clear. It is said that the most accurate fasting blood sugar result can only be obtained if the patient underwent fasting for at least eight hours before collection of blood.

This clinical chemistry examination is a screening test for diabetes. If the result is above the normal values, physicians would usually request for another fasting blood sugar examination. However, some doctors will immediately request for a glycosylated hemoglobin test as a confirmatory test for diabetes. But this will depend on your doctor's assessment regarding your medical background.

Fasting blood sugar is essential especially for patients with family history of diabetes. As you all know it, diabetes is one of the deadliest diseases worldwide. Unfortunately, there is no cure for this disease of impaired insulin function.

Other topics of interest:

Significance Of Acidic Urine

Feces Examination

Semen Analysis

Elevated Amylase

Protein In Urine

Significance Of Acidic Urine

My mom just had a urinalysis/urine analysis/urine examination yesterday. It was one of the examinations requested to assess her nephrolithiasis (formation of kidney stones). I wasn’t there when the result was released. Due to my father's current condition (underwent TURP for his prostate cancer and treated for other complications), every member of the family is already freaking out. My sister was worried about my mom's urinalysis result, not with the entire result though. To be exact, she's anxious about the pH value; it turned out acidic.

Since the kidneys, along with the lungs, regulate the acid-base balance of the body, the normal pH of a random urine specimen would range from 4.5 to 8.0. But there are no normal values for pH. The acidity of the urine should be evaluated in conjunction with the patient's condition.

In other words, you cannot have a clear picture of your kidneys through the pH of your urine. Hence, acidic urine is just a piece of the puzzle.

However, pH of 9 in a urine specimen indicates an improperly preserved specimen.

Image from scienceblogs.com.

Related Posts:
Feces Examination
Semen Analysis
Elevated Amylase
Protein Urine
First Morning Specimen

Feces Examination—A Specialty Of

One of the "specialties" of a medical technologist is to process feces for examination. If you don’t have a strong stomach, then you're really going to vomit… like me.

The collection of fecal specimen is not that easy for the patients. Containers are being provided and patients are needed to be instructed on how to properly collect the specimen from a clean container, like a bedpan for example, to a laboratory container for feces examination.

Patients have to bear in mind to prevent the specimen from combining with urine or defile it with water from the toilet that has disinfectants.

Bacteria, cellulose, gastrointestinal secretions, bile pigments, cells from the intestinal walls, electrolytes and water are the composition of a normal fecal specimen. Most of the bacteria found in normal feces are the normal flora of the intestines that help in the digestive process.

What causes the unpleasant odor of feces?

It’s the metabolism of bacteria that causes the strong odor of feces.
The introduction of pathogenic organisms will disturb the normal intestinal flora that resulted to diarrhea.

During constipation, the absorption of additional water from the fecal material takes longer and as a result small and hard stools are produced.

Hence, in order to avoid constipation, you have to eat a diet rich in fiber and drink plenty of water to facilitate in easy defecation.

Image from Flickr.com by obsessive compulsive photographer

Related Posts:
Semen Analysis
Elevated Amylase
Protein In Urine
First Morning Specimen
Calcium Oxalate in Urine

Semen Analysis: Three-Hour Experiment

[Flickr.com by tuffy1973]

The evaluation of infertility cases and postvasectomy cases are the two primary reasons for semen analysis.

I still have a semi-vivid image in my mind when we had a three-hour experiment for semen analysis. The guys had to be absent for one subject because they needed to "concentrate"…if you know what I mean. True man or semi-man, he/half-he had to donate his sperm for semen analysis experiment.

While the men were "away," we, ladies, had to prepare the laboratory equipment for the said activity. And after maybe almost an hour of waiting, the guys arrived sweaty and, surprisingly, in high spirits.

Then, the fun began.

If I could accurately remember, the first thing we did was to sniff the chlorine type smell of the semen. (It wasn’t necessary, but we did it anyway.) And then we measured the volume (normal semen volume ranges between 2 and 5 ml) and its pH (normal is slightly alkaline); and determined its viscosity (normal viscosity will pour in droplets).

Looking at the sperm through the microscope is the most interesting part because we could really see the tadpole-like rapid movement of the sperm. In fertility cases, the actual number of sperm present, the motility of the sperm in a semen specimen, and the sperm's morphology are valid measurements.

We all know that there's only one (or sometimes two) sperm that can successfully penetrate the ovum, but the sperm count normal values are 20 to 160 million sperm per milliliter. Isn't it frustrating when you have countless sperms and only one could get in? (lol)

Furthermore, even though you have enough sperm count but the motility of your semen is not that aggressive, impregnating a woman will be formidable. One male classmate of mine had a grade 4 (excellent rapid movement). No wonder after a year, he's already a father.

And don’t ever think that having a handsome face is already enough because the face or the appearance of his sperm should also count in fertility case. It is essential for the guy's semen to have 70% to 99.9% good looking sperms, like this:

[baby4you.co.nz]

However, the semen analysis is only a part of fertility test.

Well, that's all folks. We had an exciting three-hour laboratory experiment. Ciao.

Related Topics:

Elevated Amylase

Protein In Urine

First Morning Urine

Calcium Oxalate in Urine

Nursing Versus Medical Technology

Elevated Amylase

After my uncle suffered from pancreatitis and fortunately, he was immediately brought to the hospital, all of us wanted to have our laboratory test done for amylase, which is used to detect or diagnose pancreatitis. However, according to my uncle's physician, elevated amylase level in the body will only occur if there's an injury to the pancreas.

Last March 29, 2002, Rico Yan, matinee idol, died of pancreatitis (bangungot).

Related topics: Health (Adrenoleukodystrophy), Medical Technology (Protein In Urine), Human Diseases (13's Huntington)

Protein In Urine

[vet.uga.edu]

According to Strasinger, the most indicative of renal disease is the protein determination.

In a routine analysis, presence of excess protein in urine does not always signify renal disease but it does require additional testing to determine whether it's pathologic or normal.

Glomerular membrane damage, disorders affecting tubular reabsorption of filtered protein and increased serum levels of low-molecular weight proteins are some of the major pathologic causes of proteinuria (presence of excess protein in urine).

Related Topics: Health (Assessing Consciousness), Medical Technology (First Morning Specimen), Human Diseases (13's Huntington)

First Morning Specimen

The first morning urine is the ideal screening specimen because it is more concentrated than the random specimen.

Furthermore, the first morning urine is also important for preventing false-negative pregnancy tests and for evaluating orthostatic proteinuria.

How to collect it? The patient is instructed to immediately collect the specimen upon arising and deliver it to laboratory within one hour.

Related Topic: Medical Technology (Calcium Oxalate in Urine)

Calcium Oxalate in Urine

Calcium oxalate is one of my favorite crystals in urine because they can be recognized easily. Further, the shape resembles an envelope but dumbbell and oval forms may also occur.

Calcium oxalate crystal is one of the normal crystals that can be found in acidic urine.

I just can't forget calcium oxalate… it is one of the reasons why I passed the internship. How? It's a secret I can never tell.

Related topic: Medical Technology (Nursing VS Medical Technology)