Urinary Disorders
Urinary Disorder Objectives
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Describe the types of information provided by urinalysis, including some of the limitations of trying to make diagnoses simply based on urine characteristic.
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List and describe various kidney diseases, including kidney stones, renal cancer, and polycystic disease.
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Explain what is a common cause of urinary tract infections, and explain why females are more likely to get urinary tract infections than males.
Before we get into disorders specific to the urinary system, we will start with a look at urinalysis as a technique for diagnosing disease.
Urine testing is done frequently, along with blood testing, to screen for a variety of diseases.
This video demonstrates some of the key characteristics of urinalysis.
Urinalysis may pick up on kidney issues, or other urinary tract disorders like bladder infections. This video introduces some of the more common urinary disorders. Please note that the terms female/woman and male/man are used medically with patients who have anatomical differences related to how close the urethral opening (urine excretion) is to the anus (fecal egestion). Close proximity of these two openings increases the risk of bacterial transfer.
Reduced Filtration
Kidney damage from different disorders can reduce blood plasma filtration. This loss of homeostasis can impact blood pressure, nutrient availability, and a number of other body processes.
Similar to other organs, the kidneys have a suite of diseases that can damage tissue. This video introduces some of these diseases.
Different types of kidney stones can form depending on the mineral that is crystalizing.
Strange, but true: some people collect different types of kidney stones, kind of like rock collecting.
The next section links the urinary system to other organ systems.
Check your knowledge. Can you:
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describe the types of information provided by urinalysis, including some of the limitations of trying to make diagnoses simply based on urine characteristic?
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list and describe various kidney diseases, including kidney stones, renal cancer, and polycystic disease?
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explain what is a common cause of urinary tract infections, and explain why females are more likely to get urinary tract infections than males?
Go back to the Urinary Organs Page
Go forward to the System Interactions Page
Urinary System Lecture Guide Contents
The material from this guide and corresponding lecture is assessed on the weekly quiz.
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This week’s overview
This Guide
Urinary System
