24 Hour Urine Analysis

[green]

Hello,

My doctor ordered a "24 hour urine analysis" for me including vannillyimandelic acid, metanephrine, dopamine, 5-hydroxy indole acetic acid, Epinephrine, Norepinephrine and "a seperate 24 hour urine for sodium." The labs are closed today for the 4th of July weekend - but I am trying to figure out when to have this test done. Do you have to spend 24 hours in the lab?

Thanks,

Green

[EarthMother]

Nope. They give you a "pee jug" to take come. In most cases it is refrigerated between collections -- (insert joke about kids rummaging in fridge looking for something to eat). If you picked up the jug today, you may be able to hold it until Sunday for the collection and then return on Monday. If you call the lab they should be able to tell you how it works for them.

[green]

Nope. They give you a "pee jug" to take come. In most cases it is refrigerated between collections -- (insert joke about kids rummaging in fridge looking for something to eat). If you picked up the jug today, you may be able to hold it until Sunday for the collection and then return on Monday. If you call the lab they should be able to tell you how it works for them.

That's great news for me. I thought I'd have to take off a day of work to sit in a lab and pee! Thanks!

[flop]

No you can do the test at home. Having done one collection whilst at work having to take a rucksack with the pee bottle and a plastic jug to the loo was rather embarrassing. Easier to do the collection on a sunday and drop it off to the lab on the monday morning.

A lot of places are bad at explaining how to do a 24 hour collection. Essentially you choose a start time say 10am. At 10am you go to the loo and empty your bladder into the loo and flush it away. From then onwards everytime you pee you need to collect all of it and pour it into the collection bottle (I usually buy a cheap plastic jug to make this easier). The next day at 10am (or whatever your chosen start time was) you do your last urine collection (even if you don't feel the need to pee). At that point the collection is completed and you can take it to the lab to be analysed.

Flop

[tinkerbella]

FYI: I'm always a 2 Jugger. I learned the hard way. Make sure you ask how to store it as some to chemicals in and others want you put it in the fridge.

Good Luck.

BellaMia~

[green]

No you can do the test at home. Having done one collection whilst at work having to take a rucksack with the pee bottle and a plastic jug to the loo was rather embarrassing. Easier to do the collection on a sunday and drop it off to the lab on the monday morning.

Haha. Thanks for forewarning me. Taking a bottle to the bathroom at work probably would feel awkward.

A lot of places are bad at explaining how to do a 24 hour collection. Essentially you choose a start time say 10am. At 10am you go to the loo and empty your bladder into the loo and flush it away. From then onwards everytime you pee you need to collect all of it and pour it into the collection bottle (I usually buy a cheap plastic jug to make this easier). The next day at 10am (or whatever your chosen start time was) you do your last urine collection (even if you don't feel the need to pee). At that point the collection is completed and you can take it to the lab to be analysed.

I take it that the 24-hour urine analysis is a popular test for doctors to order. Have you ever had one done through a commercial lab company like Labcorp or Quest? My doctor told me that the urinary preservatives are important, but only used by "high quality labs." I asked him how to tell whether a lab was "high quality" and he told me to go to a University hospital lab. So that's what I plan to do right now - although they're closed for the holiday, and I wish I could get this over with.

BTW, what is this test for besides pheochromocytoma?

[flop]

I've only had collections done for 24 hour sodium (but have done the test many times). The collection bottle for the sodium doesn't need preservative or keeping in the fridge. I suspect that the other tests need a preservative in the bottle so have to be done on a separate bottle. That means you will actually have to collect on 2 different days.

The bottles I have been given hold 2.5 litres, as BellaMia said many of us pee more than 2.5 litres so ask for 2 bottles for each collection. When the first is full just carry on collecting in the second bottle but make sure that the go back to the lab together. I usually write "1 of 2" and "2 of 2" on the lables and tie them together with a bit of string just to make sure!

Flop

[ramakentesh]

No you can do the test at home. Having done one collection whilst at work having to take a rucksack with the pee bottle and a plastic jug to the loo was rather embarrassing. Easier to do the collection on a sunday and drop it off to the lab on the monday morning.

LOL

[tinkerbella]

I've had it done by the high quality labs and then some. Some have never heard of what I think your having done. every time I alarm the docs with the results, as I really don't think anyone knows what they are doing or how to do the test right. Then I inform them of what was done wrong and they rethink it and change their mind. LOL!

It's a long, long story and today is just one of those days. I'm soooooooooooooooo tired.