The Visual Examination
Know the normal color of your urine before a urinalysis. A lab technician may have the responsibility of looking at the color of the urine to determine if the sample is suspect. The technician will look at the color, the clarity and the concentration of sedimentation that is in the urine. Typically, urine can range in color from a very pale yellow or colorless to amber. For example, some people excrete green urine after eating asparagus. The time to worry is if your urine has either specks of fresh blood or is darker in color than usual, and especially if it appears dark purple or dark red. The bottom line is that unusual urine colors could be a symptom of a disease in process.
Clear or very pale urine typically means that the patient has consumed a lot of water that is being excreted in their urine. Dark yellow urine could be a symptom of dehydration or the patient has an elevated temperature.
Chemical Examination
Research or ask your medical professional questions about what type of test results you will receive. To do a chemical examination of urine, most laboratories use commercially prepared chemical strips. The test strips are narrow, plastic strips with small paper squares called test pads. These pads have chemicals pressed into them, and when dipped into urine the pads absorb the urine and a chemical reaction occurs that changes the color of the pad. To reduce timing errors and eliminate variations in color interpretations, automated instruments are frequently used to read the reaction on each test pad. Some of the more common items that a urinalysis are trying to identify are, blood, glucose (a sign of diabetes) or bilirubin (a waste product from the liver). The presence of bilirubin in urine, for example, could be a symptom of liver disease, or jaundice.
The Microscopic Examination
Understand that when a microscopic examination occurs, it is because something specific has happened in either or both the visual examination and/or the chemical examination.
This type of analysis may or not be a part of the laboratory examination of your urine. Microscopic examinations are usually done if there are abnormalities in the visual or chemical analysis of the test. The lab will perform various tests to identify specific issues found in your urine. Your doctor should clearly explain any abnormal findings in your results.