Urine examination is useful to detect diseases affecting the kidneys. It may reveal diseases that would have gone unnoticed due to absence of striking signs and symptoms such as diabetes mellitus, glomerulonephritis and urinary tract infections. Urine analysis is a part of routine evaluation of a child suspected to have renal disease. Gross Inspection of the urine, dipstick analysis and microscopic examination are essential for a complete urine analysis.

Ideally clean- catch midstream urine specimen should be collected after cleaning the external urethral meatus with soap & water. Urinary catheterization is required only in special situations such as in comatose or confused patients. In newborns and infants, urine can be collected with help of a urine bag or by suprapubic transabdominal bladder aspiration. To determine specific gravity, urine should be collected after a period of water deprivation such as an early morning sample before ingestion of any fluid. Specific gravity > 1.022 in a randomly collected specimen denotes adequate renal concentrating capacity as long as there are no abnormal solutes in the urine.

Normally urine is pale to dark yellow or clear in color. Turbid or cloudy urine may be due to excessive cellular debris or proteins and may be seen in chyluria and UTI. Red colored urine may be seen after ingestion of a food dye, eating fresh beet, drugs such as NSAIDS or presence of hemoglobin or myoglobin. Cola colored urine is suggestive of a renal bleed such as in the nephron and is seen in glomerulonephritis.