Urine Based Laboratory Diagnosis

Medical Laboratory diagnosis begins with qualitative urine analysis using a random voided urine for micro, sugar and albumin to diagnose symptoms associated with infection, diabetes and renal failure.  Quantitative analysis using blood is the method of choice and once autoanalyser evolved, laboratories started using urine for quantitative analysis.  Biochemistry plays a significant role in the quantitative measurements of metabolites and its end products excreted in urine to correlate their levels in blood.  The other body fluid used for laboratory diagnostic purpose are saliva and sweat. Saliva and urine based biochemical tests are emerging as latest trends in laboratory diagnosis. The diagnostically useful tests using urine as specimen are TB-LAM to confirm TB, Fibrinopeptide A for ovarian and Gastric Cancer and Apo A1,A2, E and α1 antitrypsin for bladder cancer. This paper is an attempt to bring out the latest research findings in the use of urine for quantitative measurement of various analytes and its clinical usefulness.