Conventional Urinalysis as a Diagnostic Modality in the General Out Patient Department: A Case Study of a Tertiary Hospital in Nigeria

Aims: Urinalysis is a simple yet sometimes overlooked investigation. The aim of this study is to report and describe all routine chemistry urinalysis done in the outpatient department of UPTH. The objective is to ascertain if it is beneficial in the patient management.

Study Design: This is a prospective, cross sectional descriptive study

Place and Duration of Study: General out-patient Department in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria. Between August and October, 2022.

Methodology: Convenience sampling method was adopted. The results of all patients who came to the clinic and were screened were included in the study. Data was obtained over a period of 3 months from the daily records. Urine protein and glucose values had been gotten using a dipstick urinalysis on spot urine. While the blood glucose value was obtained from a pinprick blood specimen using a glucometer. Information was exported to SPSS and data was analysed through descriptive statistics.

Results: A total of 1134 patient records were obtained. 63.2% (717) were females and 36.8% (417) were males. Four percent had glycosuria and 70% had some form of proteinuria.

Conclusion: Spot Chemical analysis of urine is an effective way to screen for and to identify people who have certain degrees of diabetes and renal disease. In this study 2.6% had severe proteinuria. All first point of call clinics should have an established protocol for proteinuria.