Haematuria in adults

Abstract

We begin producing urine before we are even born and make it more or less continuously, until we die. Over a lifetime, the average person will produce over 37 000 litres of urine. For thousands of years, physicians have analysed urine to diagnose disease, which is why every GP has urine dipsticks close at hand. Haematuria (the presence of red blood cells in the urine) is a common reason that patients present to primary care. There are a multitude of different causes of haematuria, and it is important that clinicians are confident in performing a thorough and timely clinical assessment, allowing for differentiation between benign and more sinister pathologies.