Urine Crystals

Urine crystals are a type of urine sediment. Several different types of urine crystals can be seen in normal testing samples. Abnormal findings in urine which show up as urine crystals are ketones, protein, bacteria, blood (hematuria), glucose, pus, and certain crystals.

Urine contains dissolved substances (solutes) which are waste products that can become solid into urine crystals if the urine pH becomes increasingly acidic or basic and the concentration of dissolved substances increases. Crystals are identified by their shape, color, and their pH.

Urine crystals are often part of some malfunction of kidneys. Normal urine is clear, has normal urine odor and specific gravity between 1.003 and 1.035. Normal urine contains water, urea, sodium chloride, potassium chloride, phosphates, uric acid, organic salts, and urobilin.

Ammonium biurate crystals are a common type of urine crystals. Such crystals are common in cat urine or dog urine

Image of Urine Crystals

Urine Crystals Photo

Types of Crystals

Diagnosing Cause of Urine Crystals

While even an over the counter test can find a chemical imbalance, only a healthcare professional should make the final diagnosis on what exactly is causing the imbalance. The healthcare professional will also provide treatment options or send the patients for further testing. Remember that any kinds of finding of unusual glucose balance, amounts of urine proteins, ammonia, or a pH balance that is quite off, are all just symptoms. To diagnose the real cause of your problem or to find that there is no real problem at all, in almost all cases, the doctor will do much more than just give you a urine test.

To make a diagnosis, the doctor will first ask you about your lifestyle and whether you exercise regularly and eat well, and whether you consume any drugs or alcohol on a regular basis. Then the doctor will also ask you about your personal health history and the health history of your parents and grandparents. The doctor also has an option to send you for further blood, urine, saliva, or even imaging tests to get more of a picture of what is really happening in your body.

Further Information

Remember, even if there are crystals in your pee, there may still be absolutely nothing wrong with you. Additionally, the opposite is true that the excess compounds that may be in the urine do not form any crystals at all, but there may in deed be something out of the ordinary happening with your body. There may be some environmental factors that may contribute to the symptoms such as temperature which has an effect of decreasing solubility of the pee, evaporation of the pee which makes the remaining chemicals appear more dense and form crystals, and simple Urine pH which controls the rate of bacterial accumulation and growth.

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