What Causes Black Specks In Urine
At times, you might notice little black specks in urine. This can be caused due to a number of reasons. In case you notice these dark pepper falkes in urine, then you should consult a doctor and convey the symptoms. It may occur in males as well as females. In most of the cases, these are remains of cells in the urinary tract that fall off and get carried along with the urine.
Certain sediments also get eliminated from the body through urine. These sediments contain proteins, leukocytes, white blood cells and bacteria. However, other factors, too, lead to tiny or large black specks in urine. Therefore, you should seek medical advice in case you notice these black pepper flakes in urine. Here are certain factors that can lead to black particles in urine.
Uric Acid And Urate Stones
Remember that uric acid and urates account for type III of the classification and include four subtypes. Among them, subtypes IIIa and IIIb gather uric acid stones and subtypes IIIc and IIId gather urate stones that are commonly composed of ammonium hydrogen urate, which is the less soluble form of urate salts in urine.
Regarding uric acid stones, the subtype IIIa is primarily related to slow stone growth conditions as observed in urinary stasis and is mainly found with bladder stone of men with prostate hypertrophy By contrast, IIIb subtype suggests a substantial involvement of a metabolic process associated with one or several of the following factors:
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Permanent low urine pH in the case of metabolic syndrome or type 2 diabetes mellitus, or in the case of intestinal alkali loss in patients having chronic hydro-electrolytic diarrhea
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High excretion of uric acid as observed in diabetes mellitus, in myelo- or lymphoproliferative syndromes or the case of Vaquez disease or rare cases of tubular dysfunction inducing a defect in urate reabsorption. Of note, among patients suffering type 2 diabetes, females are especially at risk to develop uric acid stones exhibiting a subtype IIIb .
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High production and excretion of uric acid from diet origin .
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High uric acid concentration in acidic and concentrated urine secondary to low diuresis, whatever the origin.
Uric acid stone subtype IIIa. Top surface, bottom section
Uric acid stone subtype IIIb. Top surface, bottom section
How Do Doctors Diagnose Kidney Stones
Doctors diagnose kidney stones based on an evaluation of the patients symptoms and medical history, a physical exam, and a variety of tests.
If you are experiencing symptoms of kidney stones, your doctor or licensed healthcare practitioner will ask you several questions related to your symptoms, including:
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How long have you been experiencing pain?
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Where is the pain located?
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Is the pain radiating to other parts of your body?
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Do you have a family history of kidney stones?
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Do you have other health conditions, such as gout or ?
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How much water do you drink each day?;
- What types of foods are in your diet?
Tests your doctor may use to diagnose kidney stones include:
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Urinalysis, which evaluates a urine sample for the presence of blood or minerals that may indicate a stone
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Blood test, to look for elevated levels of certain minerals that can cause kidney stones
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X-ray, which in some cases can show the location of the stone and how it is affecting the urinary tract
- Computed tomography , an imaging scan that may or may not use liquid contrast to highlight the location and size of the kidney stone
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Drinking Plenty Of Fluids
To aid the removal of the stone, it is important to drink plenty of clear fluids. Keeping well hydrated will also help to prevent stones from forming too. Drinking lots of water is particularly important if you have a stone that has formed from uric acid as this will help to break the stone down. In these instance you will be advised to try to drink around three litres of water a day and may also be given a medication to make your urine more alkaline, which will also help the stone break down.
What Are The Diet And Nutrition Tips For Preventing Kidney Stones
To prevent kidney stones from forming, or from recurring if you have had them in the past, your doctor may recommend a specific diet plan. If necessary, a registered kidney can help you make changes to your diet to reduce your risk of kidney stones and improve overall kidney health.
While there is no single diet plan that can stop kidney stones, general nutrition tips for kidney stone prevention include:
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Drinking plenty of water, to encourage urine production and flush out the chemicals and minerals that can develop into kidney stones. This is particularly important in the summer months or during activities in which you lose more water through sweat, which can reduce urine output.
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Avoiding foods high in oxalate, the compound that helps form calcium oxalate stones, the most common type of kidney stone. Foods with naturally high levels of oxalate include beets, black tea, chocolate, nuts, potatoes, rhubarb, spinach, and Swiss chard.
- Make sure youre getting enough calcium, which may seem counterintuitive to preventing calcium oxalate stones. In truth, a lack of calcium increases your risk of kidney stones. Doctors recommend consuming 1,000 to 2,000 mg of calcium per day. You can achieve this through three daily servings of dairy foods, such as low-fat milk, low-fat yogurt, and low-fat cheese, as well as through certain fresh fruits and vegetables like oranges, broccoli and soybeans.
Ask your healthcare provider for guidance before making significant changes to your diet.
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Kidney Stone Causes And Risk Factors
Both men and women can get kidney stones, but menâs chances of getting them are about double that of womenâs.
Itâs often hard to figure out what caused a kidney stone. But they happen when your urine has high levels of certain minerals. These include:
- Calcium
- Oxalate
- Uric acid
If you donât have enough urine in your body to water down the high concentration of minerals, stones can form. Think about stirring up your favorite drink from a powder mix. If you donât add enough liquid — say, water or juice — the powder will clump up and turn into hard, dry chunks.
Things that can raise your risk for kidney stones include:
- What you eat
- Some medications like triamterene , a diuretic that treats high blood pressure; antiseizure drugs; ; corticosteroids; and protease inhibitors like indinavir sulfate for HIV.
What Information From Stone Analysis Could Be Clinically Relevant
A stone might be the first manifestation of numerous pathologies and metabolic disorders. The objective of stone analysis is to collect all relevant information from the stone helping the physician to establish the cause of stone formation and growth. For that purpose, physicians may investigate blood and urine biochemistry of each stone former in order to identify metabolic disorders able to provide accurate information on a possible metabolic disease or risk factors involved in lithogenesis. Such metabolic investigation does not ensure the actual diagnosis of the lithogenic disease if stone composition does not match. Moreover, the stone composition during subsequent analysis can differ in up to 21;% of cases, implicating the necessity to send for morpho-constitutional analysis every different stone events/treatments .
Thus, in addition to metabolic investigation, stone analysis is an essential step for the etiological diagnosis. In some cases, the metabolic disease implied in stone formation is unrecognized by standard metabolic investigations while the stone may contain particular component allowing diagnosis unambiguously . An example is adenine phosphoribosyltransferase deficiency revealed by a stone made of 2,8-dihydroxyadenine. To obtain this result, physical methods for stone analysis are required.
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The Agony And Reward Of Passing A Kidney Stone
This otherworldly orb with purple projections comes from a surprising source: the urinary tract of its photographer.
Kevin Mackenzie’s picture of a kidney stonefrom his own bodywas a winner in the 2014 Wellcome Image Awards. Credit: Kevin MacKenzie
When Kevin Mackenzie passed a small kidney stone six years ago, it didnt look like muchcertainly not what he envisioned as the culprit behind all his agony. But as manager of the microscopy facility at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, he has a knack for shining new light on objects. At life size, doesnt look that painful, he says, but it certainly does if you look at it at a higher magnification. Using a scanning electron microscope, he imaged his stone in black and white, then added color in Photoshop. The resulting picture was one of 18 winners in this years Wellcome Image Awards, which honors the most compelling biomedical pictures acquired by the collection.
To some viewers, the eerily beautiful stone may look more like an unusual planet than something produced by a human bodyand for at least one of the awards judges, that unexpectedness was part of the pictures appeal. Catherine Draycott, head of Wellcome Images, remarked that it appears paradoxically like something from another galaxy, with its dark and subtle colors and sense of floating weightless in space.
That would be reassuring to Mackenzie, who hopes his stonedazzling as it isis his last, despite the award.
Treatment Of The Sand In The Kidneys
Complex treatment of sand in the kidneys includes drug therapy, diet therapy and drinking regimen. Physiotherapy treatment is indicated in the presence of concrements.
Drugs for removing sand from the kidneys are prescribed in the absence of large stones, otherwise the stone will close the lumen of the ureter and urgent surgical intervention will be required.
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Treatment: Shock Wave Therapy
The most common medical procedure for treating kidney stones is known as extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy . This therapy uses high-energy shock waves to break a kidney stone into little pieces. The small pieces can then move through the urinary tract more easily. Side effects can include bleeding, bruising, or pain after the procedure.
Causes Of The Sand In The Kidneys
Most pathology occurs as a consequence of metabolic disturbances, when the pH of the medium changes. The normal pH is between 5-7. Depending on the reaction of urine, 2 types of sand in the kidneys are isolated:
Alkaline urine salts include tripolphosphates, urate ammonium and amorphous phosphates.
To salts of acid urine include urates, oxalates and crystals of uric acid.
These salts differ in appearance. Some of them are harmless, for example tripolphosphates. Others by their nature have uneven faces, prickly and pointed edges. Oxalate sand in the kidneys or salts of urate ammonium lead to damage to the kidney tissue, the walls of the ureters and the bladder. For this reason, the patient will feel that his kidneys are hurting because of the sand. Unpleasant sensations are greatly amplified when the sand leaves the kidneys.
The size of the sand in the kidney reflects the degree of the pathological process. The diameter of the particles to 3 mm indicates the presence of only sand, and larger ones – for the presence of stones.
A large amount of sand precipitates, which can be seen with the naked eye after urination. The color of the sediment varies depending on the type of salts, their density and the presence of additional impurities .
The causes of the appearance of sand in the kidneys are quite diverse. They include:
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How To Pass Black Kidney Stones
What are kidney stones
Kidney stones are called nephrolithiasis clinically. These stones occur, usually during the middle age. Kidney stones occur when an object normally dissolved in the urine, concentrates forming a crystal, which subsequently develops into a stone. These crystals can begin to form for a variety of reasons,
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Excess calcium oxalate or uric acid;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; Excess vitamin C or D
Certain specific drugs or medications;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; Certain specific metabolic diseases
Chronic urinary tract infections;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; Urinary tract blokage
Dehydration or drinking too little water;;;;;;;;;;;;; Sedentary lifestyle
The most frequent reason observed, responsible for formation of kidney stones, is drinking too little water. Dehydration results in concentration of stone forming substance and subsequently, in-sufficient fluids to dissolve it. Consequently, crystallization of such substances enables increasingly more un-dissolved objects sticking together and resulting in stones. Certain specific foods like animal proteins, calcium supplements, fluoridated water and dietary electrolytes enhance formation of kidney stones. Smaller kidney stones pass un-noticed, while larger ones obstruct, becoming a hindrance. They result in intense pain and are often linked with nausea, fever, intestinal disorders and infection of urinary channel. The pain radiates from the flank to the internal thighs or the genitals and is alternatively called renal colic.
What are Black kidney stones
Breaking Up Bladder Stones
In a procedure called cystolitholapaxy a doctor inserts a thin tube with a camera on the end into the urethra . The doctor can view the stones through the tube and break them down.
The doctor will use a laser, ultrasound, or a small implement to break up the stones before washing them away. This procedure is carried out under anesthesia.
Complications from cystolitholapaxy are rare but can include tears in the bladder wall, and infections.
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The Struvite Kidney Stone
Why they start
Because urine is filled with urea, soil bacteria that get into the urinary tract can;break it down to ammonia and create struvite from the magnesium and phosphate urine always contains.
You might wonder how soil bacteria get into the urinary system.
Because we eat them, with foods that are not cooked, and they become part of the intestinal bacterial population from an early age. In us and around us, they find a way into the urinary system, especially in women whose shorter urethra makes entry easier.;No matter how skillfully used, any;instrument put into the bladder can carry our personal soil bacteria with it.
What they do
Because they live among molds and fungi, soil bacteria easily mount resistances to antibiotics, so antibiotics given for a urinary tract infection will tend to kill sensitive bacteria and select out those that can resist them.
Soil bacteria can produce struvite stones de novo, or infect calcium stones to produce a mixed stone. Either way, struvite stones are infected by their very nature. They can become huge. Their bacteria can injure the kidneys, even enter the bloodstream and cause sepsis.
Treatment is a mix of thoughtful surgery and selection of antibiotics after such surgery to kill bacteria that remain. If the stones are;a mixture of struvite and calcium crystals, new calcium stones need to be prevented.
Color Of Kidney Stones: What Color Are Kidney Stones
Most of the kidney stones appear either yellow or brown, but some may be black, gold or tan colored. Black kidney stones are generally common. The color of kidney stones depends upon their composition. For example, in case of stones made of calcium whewellite, the stone would have a black or brown color. If the stone consists of magnesium and calcium, then it may appear light yellow in color.
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Sizes Of Kidney Stones
The size of kidney stones can range from small sized crystals to large sized stones such as the size of a golf ball. Usually, small-sized stones can easily pass through the urinary tract without any medical assistance. But in some cases, if these stones get struck along the tract, then medical treatment may be required.
Large stones require medical intervention and cannot pass on their own. Certain tests such as KUB, an Ultrasound or an IVP help in determining the size of the stone. Read about passing of kidney stones in urine.
The shape of kidney stones may vary from round, smooth or oval to branched, rough and jagged. They may take shapes of either starbursts, branch-like fingers or could be multi-layered. The shape of kidney stones depends upon the region where they are formed and their composition.
What Are The Symptoms Of Kidney Stones
For the most part, patients may not know that they have a kidney stone until it moves. Once it moves, it can cause excruciating pain along with other symptoms, including:
- Intense pain that can radiate.
- Chills.
- Cloudy urine.
- Urine that appears to be pink or red in color .
Pain Intense pain; typically a constant pain that intensifies in waves. This pain is usually located below the ribs in the vicinity of the kidney. The pain can often shoot from that location to the groin. The patient usually cannot find a position that is comfortable. Individuals may stand, sit, pace, or recline, in search of a position that will bring relief.
Blood in the urine It is common to find blood in the urine either microscopically or, less frequently, visible to the naked eye.
If fever and chills accompany these symptoms, an infection may be present and medical attention is required as soon as possible.
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