What Are The Tests a Urologist Would Suggest?

Drinking a minimum of eight glasses of water every day is vital to our body. Water clears toxins, helps digestion, improves blood circulation, keeps the body dehydrated and removes waste from kidneys. When the body isn’t getting its regular supply of water, the kidneys strain to flush out the waste and put pressure on the bladder. That is when we are prone to a lot of urinary tract infections. There are a few tell-tale signs that indicate a latent urinary tract disorder.

-Urgency to urinate every now and then.

-Urine incontinence – Little amounts of urine gushing out when you laugh, walk or cough. This happens when bladder control becomes weak.

-Blood or pus cells in urine.

-Burning sensation and itching when you urinate.

-Water retention in the feet, hands and face. When water is retained in the body, it settles down in these body parts and causes swelling.

If you spot any of these, rush to your nearest Urologist to get it checked.

When you visit an urologist with a complaint, he might order these tests to be conducted on you to come to a conclusion. Depending upon the kind of symptoms you experience, the tests vary.

1. Urine tests – The most common and effective way to diagnose a problem in the urinary tract is a simple urine test. A patient is asked to drink plenty of water, pass urine and collect it in a bottle. The sample is sent to the lab for further investigation. Blood, sugar, creatinine, protein, bacteria or yeast, crystals or stones in the kidneys can all be checked in a single urine sample.

2. Kidney x-ray – A detailed kidney x-ray is ordered when an urologist suspects stones in the kidney or crystals in the bladder and urinary tract. The patient is made to fill his bladder with water and also empty it in the diagnostic centre while conducting these tests. It will help the doctor to get a clear picture of the bladder function.

3. Urine flow study – When a person takes very little or very long time to pass urine, an urologist will get to understand more about it through a urine flow study. The lab technician will assess the time duration taken to empty the bladder and also the amount of urine. This test is highly useful to study the bladder muscle tone and the size of the prostate gland.

4. Cytoscopy – Cancerous cells in the urine can be checked via the cytoscopy test. A few people spot blood in urine and have painful micturition process. A small tube is pushes through the urethra and bladder and collects tissue from the walls of the bladder. This tissue is sent for lab examination to rule out tumours, cysts or cancerous cells.

5. Urodynamics – This test is very helpful in measuring the bladder capacity and nerve activity while filling and emptying the bladder. Catheters are inserted into the bladder and the rectum and they provide readings of the pressure the bladder undergoes.

All these tests that an Urologist would recommend are highly accurate and help the Doctor in diagnosing the problem. In many tests, the patient would be put under local anaesthesia because insertion of catheters and bladder x-rays might be painful.