Abstract:

“Laboratory medicine began with the analysis of human urine, which was called uroscopy and today is termed urinalysis. Uroscopy was the mirror of medicine for thousands of years. From a liquid window through which physicians felt they could view the body's inner workings. Numerous, somewhat accurate, physiologic theories arose from uroscopy. Then the importance of urinary diagnosis became exaggerated, and increasingly complex, until physicians required only the presence of urine, not patients, to diagnose disease. Uroscopy then escaped medical control, becoming first a home health aid and then a tool of uneducated practitioners. Urinalysis is the chemical, physical and microscopic examination of urine via procedures performed in an expeditious, reliable, accurate and safe manner. In ancient times, urine was poured on the ground and the attraction of insects to it indicated an abnormal urine sample. For centuries, the utility of urinalysis as a diagnostic tool is well known in medicine. Since the kidney is involved in maintenance of homeostasis in the body, any deviation from the normal urine composition can be of great diagnostic significance to the healthcare provider.”

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