CLINICAL LAB SCIENEC

CHAPTER 12: PROCEDURES FOR URINALYSIS AND BODY FLUIDS 323
Summary
The kidneys are arguably the most important organs of the body as they maintain
the equilibrium between water and dissolved particles of the blood and
also maintain the pH of the body at a slightly alkaline state in order for metabolism
to occur. Urine is the body fluid most easily available for assessing the
health of an individual, and urinalysis is one of the most common procedures
performed in the clinical laboratory.
Normal urine samples should be clear and light yellow. Any departure from
these characteristics may be evidence of disease. Although chemical testing at
one time was performed as a single procedure for each analyte, advances have
allowed for screening for as many as ten separate entities by the use of a single
dipstick with a chemically reactive pad.
A microscopic exam is performed after the macroscopic (physical) and dipstick
exams, and often confirms what has been determined through those procedures.
The presence of abnormal crystals and significant levels of red blood
cells and/or white blood cells in the urine are indicative of medical conditions
that require treatment.
Other body fluids may yield clinical findings of disease through the presentation
of entities similar to those found in urine. Glucose and protein levels
in the CSF provide clues as to whether bleeding is or has occurred and
if a viral or bacterial infection is present. The presence of white blood cells,
and the types that predominate, are significant in the spinal fluid as well as
in the synovial fluid. In the synovial fluid, crystals such as those found in
urine specimens are an important clinical finding that indicates inflammation.
Trans udates and exudates are similar, except that transudates indicate a
disruption of fluid production and dispersion between the serous membranes,
and exudates are fluids that are produced by serous membranes in response
to injury or infection. Learning the important clinical tests for one of these
fluids provides the techniques for performing examinations for other types of
fluids.
Review Questions
1. Besides blood, what are some other body fluids that may require laboratory
testing?
2. In your opinion, how has testing of body fluids improved in accuracy and
ease of performance?
3. Why is the testing of CSF so critical?
4. Why are confirmatory tests important?
5. What are some reasons that urine is the most often tested body fluid?
6. How would one determine if bleeding has occurred in the cerebrospinal
column?
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