Technological Advancements in Urinalysis - Research Paper Example

Technological Advancements in Urinalysis The history of urinalysis dates back to many centuries ago, when urine testing was referred to as uroscopy and it is not until the 17th century when urinalysis was adapted (Williams, 2013). The analysis on urine in the laboratory forms the first laboratory experiment that was ever undertaken by man, in order to determine the different medical conditions of humans (Armstrong, 2007). The initial analysis of urine started with the use of liquid mirror through which urine could be observed, and the existence of different parasites or anomaly determined, back in the Victorian era (Armstrong, 2007). However, with time, the analysis of urine became exaggerated, such that it violated the privacy and dignity of the patients, resulting in the advancement where urine testing progressed to the use of urine only, without the presence of the patient like was happening before. In the ancient times, the tests of urine were used as the primary method of determining the state of human health. This has progressively changed with the advancement in medicine, such that currently, the analysis of urine is only used to diagnose certain medical conditions only (Armstrong, 2007). The history of urine analysis indicates that at around 4000 BC, urine was used to test the medical condition that is referred in modern day urinalysis as diabetes, through putting some urine of different patients on the ants path, such that the ants would be attracted to the sweet urine, which would indicate that the patient was suffering from a certain health anomaly (Diamandopoulos & Actuarius, 2001). Later at around the second century, the testing of urine changed to the practical observation of the patients urine condition at around the fourth century, (460–355 BC) where the urine was observed for bubble components and if the bubbles were found to be present in large numbers, then the patient was declared to be suffering from a kidney disorder (Armstrong, 2007). However, it is not until six centuries later, at around (AD 129–200), when the accuracy of urinalysis was attained, with the first description of urine, not as a residual of body tissues, but as a residual and filtrate of blood, by Galen, a Roman scientist (Armstrong, 2007). Galen made the testing of urine more specific to certain medical conditions, by observing different anomalies in urine production and then relating quantities of urine produced to different medical conditions. Thus, the high quantity of urine produced was discovered to be a characteristic that was atypical to the normal human health condition, and which has been known as polyuria (Armstrong, 2007). The seventh century marked the year when the actual diagnosis of urine was tested and recorded, through the first publication of the range of colors of urine and their possible medical conditions, in the paper De Urinis by Theophilus Protospatharius (Jasin, 1993). Thus, Protospatharius was the first to use heat as a tool for urine analysis, and then later another scientist, Paracelsus, at around the 16th century used vinegar as a component for analyzing urine, in order to determine the existence of different anomalies, and then attribute the anomalies to different medical conditions (Armstrong, 2007).This was later collaborated by Fredrick Dekkers a century later, through identifying the urine suspension obtained through vinegar treatment as the medical condition known in present day as proteinuria (White, 1991). The introduction of vessels as an important component for testing urine came later in the 11th century, when Ismail of Jurjani researched and offered that the storage methods of the urine to be tested has an influence on the accuracy of the diagnosis of the medical conditions that can be done through urine analysis (Armstrong, 2007). Thus, Ismail of Jurjani introduced a vessel that took the shape of the human bladder as the most appropriate equipment for storing urine to be used for analysis, while introducing the new storage conditions that required storing the urine away from direct sunlight or heat, to avoid the discoloration of the urine (Armstrong, 2007). The advancement of this research by King Philippe-Auguste, a French royal scientist, introduced a new equipment for storage and use of analysis of urine, which became the antecedent to the modern day urine storage and analysis equipment, when he introduced the glass vessel known as matula that was made of thin layer of glass, and shaped like a bladder (Armstrong, 2007). The advancement progressed through to the 12th century, when Joannes Actuarius introduced the clear classification and distinction of urine based on normal and abnormal conditions in 1328, where he defined yellow urine as representing healthy body condition, darker urine representing high amount of waste in human body and light urine to represent the weakness of the body in fighting different diseases (Diamandopoulos & Actuarius, 2001). The diagnosis of urine shifted from its sole reliance on the physicians and other health professionals of the time, to home-based urine analysis in 1491, when a home-based urine analysis manual titled Fasiculus Medicinae by Ketham Johannes was introduced to the market (Voswinckel, 2000). By the 17th century, the urinalysis technology had advanced, such that the foaming of urine was diagnosed as a sign of pathologic proteneuria, and by the 19th century, urine tests was done using newspapers as the plates where urine was placed and then dried on the sunlight to give an indication of the possible urine components when analyzed through other tools such as microscopes (Williams, 2013). The technological advancement of urinalysis then progressed through to the 20th century, where in the 1940s, the dry reagent tablet technology was introduced to test the urine for albumin and acetone (CAP, 2014). The method applied the dipstick technology, where a strip of indicator paper is dipped in the urine provided by the patient, to give results of various urine components which can then help determine the medical conditions of the body such as blood PH levels, glucose content, protein content and leukocytes components (CAP, 2014). The technological advancement in urinalysis then led to the rise of enzyme glucose oxidase, which made it possible to test the glucose levels of the blood accurately, thus making it possible to diagnose medical conditions such as diabetes mellitus, by the end of the 1950s (CAP, 2014). Nevertheless, the technological advancement at around 1957 led to the development of the first urine dipstick which for the first time made the urinalysis procedure very easy, owing to the fact that the patients were only required to dip the urine dipstick into the urine sample, and then read the results visually (CAP, 2014). Due to the fact that the visual reading of the urine dipstick was proving to be a problem for many people associated with visual problems, the need for an automated system of reading the urine dipstick arose, and by 1980, a reflectometer had been developed, to aid the automation of reading the urine dipstick results (Williams, 2013). The turn of the 20th century also came with advancement in urinalysis technology, where urine strip pad were developed and improved such that they could read between eight and twelve different urine components, to ease the diagnosis of various medical conditions associated with the kidney (CAP, 2014). Thus, through the use of the automated urine dipsticks, medical conditions such as diabetes, kidney diseases, infections in the urinary tract and bladder cancer have been effectively diagnosed (CAP, 2014). The most recent technological advancement in urinalysis is the development of a chemical method that can measure urine creatinine, making it possible to measure the urine concentration levels with a high degree of accuracy, such that the new urine dipsticks in the market gives the urine concentration as a ration of Albumin-to- urine creatinine, A:C, which has made it even easier to detect early kidney diseases (CAP, 2014). References Armstrong, J. A. (2007). Urinalysis in Western culture: A brief history. Kidney International 71, 384–387. College of American Pathologists (CAP). (2014). Point of Care Testing Toolkit: Current and Projected Technology. Retrieved November 14, 2014 from http://www.cap.org/apps//cap.portal?_nfpb=true&cntvwrPtlt_actionOverride=%2Fportlets%2FcontentViewer%2Fshow&_windowLabel=cntvwrPtlt&cntvwrPtlt{actionForm.contentReference}=committees%2Fpointofcare%2Fpoc_toolkit_overview.html&_state=maximized&_pageLabel=cntvwr Diamandopoulos A. & Actuarius, J. (2001). A witness of late Byzantine uroscopy, closely linked with Thessaloniki. Nephrol Dial Transplant 16(6), 2–3.  Jasin J. (1993). The transmission of learned medical literature in the middle English Liber uricrisiarum. Medical History 37, 313–329. Voswinckel, P. (2000). From uroscopy to urinalysis. Clin Chim Acta 297, 5–16. White W.I. (1991). A new look at the role of urinalysis in the history of diagnostic medicine. Clinical Chemistry 37, 119–125.  Williams, L. (2013). Urinalysis: new technologies, new potential. The Medical Laboratory Observer. Retrieved November 14, 2014. From http://www.mlo-online.com/articles/201309/urinalysis-new-technologies-new-potential.php Read More