When you do a urine specimen, ensure that you are clean and also do a little pee in the toilet pan and collect the mid stream for testing, finishing off by getting rid of the rest of the urine into the toilet pan.
Your kidneys are the body's filters and it is their job to get rid of excess salts etc. If you have no physical symptoms and feel well, and the tests show up normal, then you have nothing to worry about.
Although a cloudy urine can indicate that there may be an infection, as you have found out this is not always the case. But it is still worth checking out if you have other symptoms, like frequent urination, pain in the lower belly and back and burning sensation before or after urination. It is also a good idea to smell your urine. A urine that smells strongly of kidneys would indicate that there is a problem in the urinary tract.
I have had kidney stones in the past and sometimes you can get a sediment like very fine sand as well as the cloudiness.
Nitrites in the urine indicates Cystitis. Whereas leucocytes and protein indicate an infection in the urinary tract. Blood in the urine in men should always be investigated. In women, it can sometimes be from the menstrual cycle. The urinary tract is anywhere from the kidneys right down to the urethra.
Like mkh9 mentions, it is extremely important for you to drink plenty of water. 2-3 litres per day is usually advised for kidney problems.
The way to know that you are drinking enough water is by the colour of the urine, the darker it is (if it contains no blood) the more dehydrated you are.
The colour should be a very light straw colour to indicate that you are well hydrated. The urine specimens in your picture show that you need to drink more water.
Because I have a history of kidney stones, I monitor my own urine and seek medical help if I find any abnormalities on the urine sticks as well as physical problems. These can be purchased quite cheaply over the internet. You cannot buy these from the chemist. I buy the 100 of the10 reagent strips, but you can purchase strips that can show up less that 10 problems and a lesser quantity. You do need to know what you are looking for so as to interpret the results correctly. The strips can indicate if there is a problem but the laboratory tests are more precise.
What I have found is that if I eat peanuts or peanut butter I do notice more cloudiness and sediment in my urine. I was told to avoid dairy and some other foods to lessen the formation of further stones.
In the UK if you had problems with pain and persistent kidney infections, your doctor would refer you to have an ultrasound scan and also refer you to a urologist for further investigation. Just keep an eye on things and if you start to experience other symptoms as well as a raised temperature, then seek medical advice.
Best wishes.
Well it can be ok but it isn't usual to have such a high amount of sediment. However, if the type of cells observed are normal then something may have happened like bumping your back or whatever that may have caused some trauma to the kidneys or something but it isn't showing any red cells or anything at this point. I would keep an eye on it and as long as there are no abnormal cells you are ok. They may not have seen any abnormal number of cells just a lot of epithelial cells for example so it doesn't mean there is anything "wrong" per se. So I wouldn't worry at this point because for sure they would have seen some abnormal cells. I would just follow it up. Keep hydrated.
mkh9
Thanks for your reply again, that's exactly what I wanted to know exactly what type of casts they were if any, or to identify what the damn sediment is that's causing it to be cloudy, they didn't tell me the doctor called me and just assured me that it's normal and said to do another test in a few weeks if it persists, they did a blood test to check my kidneys and liver and did a full blood count and it was all fine they said. Nope no injuries that I'm aware of and the only tablets I take are vitamins but I wasn't even taking them when I first noticed the cloudy urine with sediment.
It's really quite frustrating because I know this quantity of cells leaving my body on such a regular basis isn't normal, and the fact they can't even identify the problem or tell me what type of cells they are is even more frustrating, I just know there was no blood cells, red or white, no protein etc, they said it was all okay when clearly there is a problem.
Blueskies21,
Yes, I saw your photo, thanks. Do you know the results of the urinalysis? They usually do the microscopic part of the urine too. Such as they will look at the dipstick then if normal they will also look at the sediment for casts, red cells, white blood cells, crystals and so forth. There are different types of casts and the number and type can tell if you have kidney problems or not also all these things such as cells, casts, crystals, and skin cells (epithelial cells) make up the sediment. Everyone has some sediment after they centrifuge the urine. Yours has quite a bit. It may be due to your kidneys, or kidney stones, or too many skin cells etc. So, the microscopic exam of the sediment should tell the lab tech what is going on and they tell the doctor what they see. Did you get that information? You say it was normal? If so it may be a lot of "skin cells". Why so many I'm not sure but if that is all it is it is normal. Also, they can tell from the blood test if they did a BUN and creatinine it can look for kidney problems. If those tests were normal that is good as well. You can retest in a few months and ask for a complete blood count plus ask the doctor if there is any reason to worry about so much sediment. Other than perhaps you were fighting something off and now you are ok. But, I would drink a lot of water and flush out the old cells. They should return to normal after the kidneys filter them out. Did you get any injuries in the last few months? Such as injury to your back or anywhere like that? If so it could be that the injury would be producing extra cells or some damage occurred and you are flushing them out through the kidneys. Same goes for if you were taking antibiotics or some other pills.
mkh9
Thanks for your response, they did do a urine culture as I'm aware of and they had nothing abnormal to report, I even made sure they got a urine sample with plenty of sediment/cloudyness..
If it was an infection they would have been able to identify it, which just makes me even more worried to be honest because they have no idea what it is, I did ask the doctor about the casts but why would I be producing so many I mean it was just like the morning urine or afternoon urine but today it has been present every time I have urinated, not in such large quantities all the time but visible once left for about 10 minutes settling from the top to the bottom or when there's a lot it usually all sinks to the bottom mostly, it's very strange and slightly worrying. I don't really get the lower back ache anymore and I have been drinking plenty of water, which doesn't seem to stop it in any way. Here is the image that you were unable to see, photo left taken like a month or two ago, photo right taken just today http://i41.tinypic.com/rjl6k2.jpg
I'm surprised they didn't do a urine culture. Some urinary tract infections won't show up on the dip stick method. Usually, you will see white cells or nitrates but sometimes you won't see everything they need to call it an infection. since your back hurt for a while it could be either a urinary tract infection or a type of cast that your kidney is producing. But there are different types of casts. You should get a culture done and if that is negative and you continue to get back pain in the kidney area back I would get an ultrasound done to check the kidneys. In the meantime drink lots of water. It wouldn't hurt to drink lots of cranberry juice and water (if you are not diabetic). That may clear it up if it is an infection. I'm trying to see your photo. Is it on your home site?
I also was tested for all STI/STD's my results were negative..