What is a urine strip and what is it for?
Everything you need to know about urine strips
Urinalysis is very important because it can detect dangerous conditions that may go unnoticed, such as diabetes, kidney damage, urinary tract infection or prostate damage.
Photo fernando zhiminaicela in Pixabay
It can be useful as a first resource if used in a specific context, such as for urinary complaints, monitoring of systemic diseases or for monitoring pregnant women.
This test is performed with urine strips.
What is a urine strip?
They come in the form of paper strips with a chemical reagent at the end that changes color on contact with the urine. The reading of the urine strip is easily interpreted by a colorimetric scale system.
This system gives an idea of the concentration, presence or absence of certain elements. For a more reliable reading, a urine strip reader can be used.
The strips can be used to test many things, such as carbohydrate metabolism, kidney and urinary tract function, urinary tract infections and liver disease.
Depending on the strips they can detect 4, 8, 10, 11 diseases. The reaction is very fast, usually it takes 1 minute to get the test result.
A urine test strip
Urine, an important indicator of certain diseases...
The urine test is very important for detecting certain diseases. For example, diabetes is detected by the presence of sugar and ketones in the urine.
Kidney damage, which can be a consequence of diabetes, can be detected by the presence of proteins. Blood in the urine may be the result of damage to the urinary tract or prostate.
Therefore, the quality of the urine depends on several factors, such as the quality of the filtered blood, the functioning of the kidneys and the conditions of the urinary tract.
The doctor usually prescribes a urine test for a check-up. It can also be done before an operation.
How can I do a urine test correctly?
It is possible to analyze your own urine, it is a very simple and fast process. In order not to distort the results of many parameters that must be taken into account, the test is performed on an empty stomach:
- To start, wash your hands and private parts with soap or Dakin solution. If you don't have any, you can opt for the wipes.
- Eliminates the first urine stream in the toilet.
- Urinate in the pot without touching the top edge.
- Dip the strips in the urine as indicated in the instructions for use.
- Finally, read the result comparing the color obtained with the color of the bottle. It must respect an expectation specified by the manufacturer.
If you have your urine tested by a professional:
- Close the lid of the bottle
- Remember to wash your hands thoroughly.
- Write your name, first name and date of collection.
- Bring the collection to the lab as quickly as possible with your life card and prescription.
What strips are essential for a health care professional?
There are many strips available in the market, 4 parameters, 5, 8, 10, 11... Box of 50 ? 100 ? How to choose between all these options?
There are several parameters to consider when choosing test strips. If you have a clear idea of what you want to test, you can use a 4-parameter test strip.
If you want to do a general test you can choose a strip with 8 conditions.
It is possible to detect with the Exacto uritop 8 test strips:
- Glucose
- Blood
- pH
- Protein
- Nitrite
- Leukocytes
- Ketone
- Ketone body
If you want an even wider test you can choose a test strip with 10 parameters, we recommend the Exacto uritop 10 :
- Urobilinogen
- Glucose
- Bilirubin
- Ketone body
- Density
- Blood
- pH
- Protein
- Nitrites
- Leukocytes
The number of strips is also important, if you need to do regular urine tests, it is better to buy a box of 100 strips like our model Siemens mulstix 8 SG. Otherwise, opt for a box of 50 strips.
Urine test strips are used by health professionals to detect certain diseases and control conditions such as urinary tract infections.
However, although the urine test is very important for detecting certain diseases, it is only a diagnosis. It must be complemented with other tests to confirm or not these data.
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