Samples for Urinalysis

Urine samples should be collected into red top containers or urine cups for all urine tests, including cytology. No plastic tubes please.

These guidelines should be followed for submission of urine tests:

• Collect at least 10 ml of urine. We try and standardize the volume of urine used for urinalysis. This is impossible to do if samples ranging from 0.5 ml (way too little to do anything useful with) to 100 ml are collected. In addition, we need a minimum of 10 ml of urine for electrophoresis. The urine protein concentration is very low and we need a minimum amount of protein to perform the electrophoresis. Most urine samples require concentration to obtain this minimum amount and for optimal concentration, we need a large sample volume.
• The tubes should be labeled with the patient identification and "urine" at the minimum. A request form with pertinent history details should be submitted concurrently.
• If there is going to be a delay between urine collection and submission, the urine should always be refrigerated.
• For cytologic samples of urine, if there is going to be a delay between sample collection and submission, always make smears of the urine sediment and submit these concurrently with a portion of uncentrifuged urine in a red top tube or urine container.