Urine analysis (or urinalysis, as it is commonly known) refers to a wide range of different tests which are employed in both human and veterinary medicine for a variety of screening and diagnostic applications. Abnormal: Some foods (such as citrus fruit and dairy products) and medicines (such as antacids) can affect urine pH A high (alkaline) pH can be caused by severe vomiting, a kidney disease, some urinary tract infections, and asthma A low (acidic) pH may be caused by severe lung disease ( emphysema ), uncontrolled diabetes, aspirin overdose, severe diarrhea, dehydration, starvation, drinking too much alcohol, or drinking antifreeze (ethylene glycol).
But in 2015, the Justice Department announced that Millennium Health, a San Diego company that operates labs, had agreed to pay $256 vet urine strip million to resolve allegations that the company had overbilled Medicare and Medicaid for unnecessary urine and genetic tests.

UTI is the second most common type of infection, accounting for approximately 10 million visits to health care providers in the United States each year.2 Many of these visits take place in the emergency department, where urinalysis can provide rapid diagnostic results.
Imaging tests, such as an ultrasound, computed tomography (CT) , or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) , may be also be used to determine whether the problem is located before the kidneys (pre-renal), in the kidneys (renal), or after the kidneys (post-renal).
A period of dehydration may precede urine collection if testing of renal concentration is desired, but any specific gravity > 1.022 measured in a randomly collected specimen denotes adequate renal concentration so long as there are no abnormal solutes in the urine.

To avoid having bacteria in urine, women are always advised to wear cotton underwear so as to allow the right kind of air ventilation into the urethra, drink a lot of fluids during the day and empty the bladder as often as possible by urinating whenever you get a chance to.
Tubular proteinuria due to defective reabsorptive capacities in the proximal tubules of freely filtered proteins, mostly low&molecular weight proteins such as immunoglobulin light chains (excretion of normally reabsorbed proteins), may be caused by tubulointerstitial diseases (ie, ATN, acute interstitial nephritis, Fanconi syndrome).
While some women may wonder why urinalysis is needed almost on every visit to their doctor, it should be clear to them that this is being done to check for the presence of bacteria, sugar or protein in the urine that can help prevent possible pregnancy complications.

Tests done include the following; PVR which shows the amount of urine left after urination, urinalysis or urine content which reveals the bacteria that caused the UTI, X-rays with contrast dye, urinary stress test, cystoscopy, urodynamic studies and for women a pelvic or abdominal ultra sound test.
Red blood cells that stick together and form red blood cell casts usually indicate problems with the glomeruli, tiny ball-shaped structures in your kidneys that help filter blood and prevent the loss of valuable substances, such as blood cells and proteins.