Can drinking a glass of water before urine analysis alter the values of the report?

Question

Hello doctor,

I am a 47-year-old female and I did a yearly urine analysis screening where I had to drink a glass of water before the test, and I noticed a small bit of spotting due to menses. I decided to still submit the urine sample and it came back with specific gravity of 1.004 and positive for small amount of blood, WBC and gram positive bacteria, negative for all else. I am sure the blood and other were from my menstrual blood. Do you think the results were accurate for detecting protein?

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I read your query and understand your concern. Yes, you are right the blood in your urine is probably due to your menstrual fluid. Urine protein is not affected by drinking water. If your kidneys are not able to hold back the protein, then no amount of water intake would change it. If you really want to confirm that you may again give the morning sample or just get a spot urine protein creatinine ratio which is accurate enough to detect any amount of protein leakage in urine. I hope I have cleared all your doubts.

Thank you.

Answer 2

Hello,

Welcome back to icliniq.com.

I would suggest not to worry at all about your creatinine. Creatinine value depends on many things like your change in muscle mass, protein intake, hydration status and different labs may show different values. If you take a lot of non veg diet then I would advise you to cut it down and replace it with green vegetables and fruits daily. Drink half gallon of water per day. Variations are natural with age, between 0.1 to 0.5 mg /dl of variations are normally seen. If you are really worried and wants to accurately check your eGFR (estimated glomerular filtration rate) then cystatin levels can be checked, that are more accurate then creatinine level. I hope I have cleared all your doubts.

Thank you.