Urinalysis and clinical renal disease

Urinalysis is a simple, efficient, and accurate guide in the diagnosis of renal disease. By determining a patient's history and obtaining a physical examination, the physician is very often able to diagnose a patient's renal lesion. Heavy proteinuria and a microscopic sediment containing red cells and red cell casts strongly suggest acute glomerulonephritis. The causes of this nephropathy are legion. On the other hand, mild proteinuria and a lack of microscopic findings suggest nephrosclerosis, interstitial nephritis, or acute tubular necrosis in the proper clinical setting. When glomerular disease produces nephrotic syndrome, the various types of glomerular disease can be diagnosed accurately without biopsy in a high percentage of cases.