Urine examination during pregnancy
During pregnancy, urinalysis plays an important role, as it is one of the preventive examinations of pregnancy every 4 or 2 weeks. Due to the close anatomical relationships between the urinary tract and the uterus carrying the child, diseases or inflammations of the urinary tract should be detected early. The urine examination that is performed is the test strip.
The detection of leukocytes, nitrite and erythrocytes allows conclusions to be drawn about an infection of the urinary tract, even if symptoms such as pain are not yet present. Women in pregnancy have an increased risk of urinary tract infections, and any urinary tract infection is treated, as is asymptomatic bacteriuria. In addition, urinalysis can detect glucose, i.e. sugar, in the urine.
This can be interpreted as an indication of gestational diabetes, which can develop during pregnancy and requires special treatment. Furthermore, urine testing with test strips detects the presence of proteins in the urine which should not be found physiologically in the urine. This proteinuria can indicate inflammation of the kidneys, but especially in pregnancy the detection of pre-eclampsia is of greater interest.
This is the most common pregnancy complication, which can be seen as a precursor of eclampsia and HELLP syndrome. These are potentially life-threatening clinical pictures for the child and the mother during pregnancy.In addition to high blood pressure, early signs are the detection of proteins in the urine, so that the importance of urinalysis in pregnancy becomes clear. Furthermore, the detection of blood in the urine during pregnancy can be an indication of rare systemic lupus erythematosus.
If the urinalysis shows ketone bodies, this can be an indication of an incorrect diet in pregnancy with too few carbohydrates. In addition to the test strip, a further urinalysis such as a bacterial culture for pathogen identification or sediment analysis may be necessary.
