Transcripts
DR. BRANDT:
Urinalysis, which is a general term for a number of studies that we do on the urine, is very useful. It's a window into the kidney's health. Normally, there's very little blood or protein in the urine. In HUS, we commonly see blood and protein in the urinalysis.
Everybody has a little bit of blood in the urine but less than four red blood cells per high powered field is normal. And we also have a little bit of protein in the urine but usually on a dipstick type measure, it's zero, none or trace. And if you look at a normal 24-hour urine protein, it's usually less than 150 milligrams a day. We also nowadays use the urine protein to creatinine ratio to estimate the 24 hour rate. If it's done first thing in the morning it's a very good estimate of what the 24 hour urine protein rate is.
Now, there are a lot of other things in the urinalysis, as Dr. Mauseth mentioned. Glucose can be very useful in catching diabetes and glucose intolerance. But in terms of HUS follow-up, the protein is actually the most useful. I mentioned blood because parents will hear about it, but it actually turns out not to be very useful in terms of prognosis and long-term outcome.
