Author: Gary Jackson

Blood in urine hematuria Symptoms and causes

There are a few types of urine tests, and some are more accurate than others. This kind of UTI can inflame the lining of your bladder enough for it to bleed and result in bloody urine, Tom Guzzo, M.D., chief of urology at Penn Medicine, tells SELF. “It’s almost like having tiny cuts or a rash on the inside of the bladder,” Dr. Linehan adds.

Try different methods to cope with stress, like journaling or meditation. Maybe find a support group of cancer survivors who understand how you’re feeling. If you’d like to learn even more about bladder cancer, watch our other related videos or visit mayoclinic.org.

Blood

However, untreated hematuria could lead to bigger problems, especially if the cause is more serious than vigorous exercise. A healthcare provider should treat any condition that causes blood in your urine. If the cause is something like cancer or kidney disease, early detection leads to early treatment. If you have sickle cell anemia, your typically round red blood cells are instead crescent-shaped like those farming tools called sickles.

These include being 50 or older, smoking cigarettes, and coming into contact with certain industrial chemicals. Although hepatorenal syndrome often ensues after an event that reduces blood volume (e.g., gastrointestinal bleeding), it also can occur without any apparent precipitating factor. Some observers have noted that patients with cirrhosis frequently develop hepatorenal syndrome following hospital admission, possibly indicating that a hospital-related event can trigger the syndrome. Regardless of the precipitating factor, patients who develop kidney failure in the course of alcoholic cirrhosis have a grave prognosis. Alcohol consumption also is known to induce a state of low blood sugar (i.e., hypoglycemia) and activate the portion of the nervous system that coordinates the body’s response to stress (i.e., the sympathetic nervous system). Both of these factors affect hormones that regulate kidney function, just as changes in fluid volume and electrolyte balance do.

Drinking Alcohol Affects Your Kidneys

Blood that can’t be seen with the naked eye is called microscopic hematuria. It’s such a small amount that it can be seen only under a microscope when a lab tests the urine. Either way, it’s important to figure out the reason for the bleeding. The average metabolic rate to remove alcohol is about one drink per hour, but the above factors might affect that rate slightly. A breathalyzer doesn’t just detect whether you’ve consumed alcohol.

Under the influence of antidiuretic hormone (ADH), for example, the tubules can create either a concentrated urine, to discharge excess solutes and conserve water, or a dilute urine, to remove extra water from body fluids. In the absence of ADH, when body fluids are overly dilute, the kidneys dilute the urine, allowing more water to leave the body. “Normal” urine flow rate is 1 milliliter per minute (i.e., approximately 1 to 1.5 L/day), but this rate can vary widely, depending on water intake or dehydration level, for instance. Patients with alcohol-induced liver cirrhosis show a great tendency to retain salt (i.e., sodium chloride), and their urine frequently is virtually free of sodium. A progressive accumulation of extracellular fluid results, and this excess fluid is sequestered primarily in the abdominal region, where it manifests as marked swelling (i.e., ascites) (see figure).

Effects on Fluid and Electrolyte Balance

In addition, alcohol can disrupt hormones that affect kidney function. Despite the clinical importance of alcohol’s effects on the kidney, however, relatively few recent studies have been conducted to characterize them or elucidate their pathophysiology. It is hoped that future investigations will focus on this important subject area.

In other words, the kidneys’ ability to excrete excess fluid by way of dilute urine is impaired, and too much fluid is reabsorbed. Hyponatremia probably is the single most common electrolyte disturbance encountered in the management of patients with cirrhosis of the liver (Vaamonde 1996). This abnormality may reflect the severity of liver disease, but the available data do not allow correlation of kidney impairment with the degree of clinical signs of liver disease, such as ascites or jaundice. One of the main functions of the kidneys is to regulate both the volume and the composition of body fluid, including electrically charged particles (i.e., ions), such as sodium, potassium, and chloride ions (i.e., electrolytes). However, alcohol’s ability to increase urine volume (i.e., its diuretic effect) alters the body’s fluid level (i.e., hydration state) and produces disturbances in electrolyte concentrations.

Healthy kidneys are vital to the function of all the body’s organs and systems. To determine if you have bladder cancer, your doctor may start with a cystoscopy, where a tiny camera is passed through the urethra to see into the bladder. If your doctor finds something suspicious, they can take a biopsy or a cell sample that is sent to a lab for analysis.

Blood you can see in your urine is called gross or visible hematuria. Sometimes you can have tiny amounts of blood that you can’t see, called microscopic hematuria. In general, they can be accurate for 12 to 24 hours, depending on the nature of the test.