Endocrine System: Diagnosing your patients

Diagnosing your Patients

Image from http://humanbiologylab.pbworks.com/

What's this funny smell?
A funny smell in urine can be an indication of ketones being present. 
Ketone bodies are acids made when your body begins using fat instead of carbohydrates for energy. When there is not enough insulin to get sugar from the blood and into the cells, the body turns to fat for energy.  A well known ketone is acetone (used in nail polish remover) and it smells bad! Read more about ketones here

Possible Diagnosis: Renal Tubular Acidosis 
Is a form of kidney disease where the kidneys fail to sufficiently acidify the urine.  Urine normally should be around pH 5-7 - but patients experiencing RTA will have a more alkaline urine. Causes for this can be an deficiency of the hormone aldosterone, produced by adrenal glands.  As the urine is not being sufficiently acidic, the H+ ions are passed into the blood, causing an intense burning pain near the kidneys.  Associated with this can be protein in the urine, which are broken down during the acidifying process. Read a bit more about it here


Possible Diagnosis: Ketacidosis:
This is caused when the body exhausts its stores of glycogen (glucose) and starts burning fat for energy.  This leads to a build up of ketones, which are a waste product of fat breakdown. 
Ketones are acidic in nature which then causes acidic urine.  Three main causes of ketacidois is excess alcohol consumption, diabetes and starvation. Read a bit more about it here


Possible Diagnosis: Diabetes:
Diabetes is caused when the pancreas does not produce sufficient amounts of the hormone insulin to regulate blood sugar levels.  This causes excess sugar to build up in your blood.  As a result your kidneys are put into overtime, as they normally send all glucose back into the bloodstream.  The kidneys begin sending glucose into the urine.  The excess glucose in the blood stream also dehydrates the cells - which normally are higher in glucose levels than the blood.  This dehydration causes the patient to feel thirsty but also urinate more frequently.  Ketones in the urine are also a symptom of diabetes, when blood sugar crashes and the body begins synthesizing fats for energy.  Read more about it here


Possible Diagnosis: Kidney Infection from Yeast Infection:
Yeast infections commonly occur when a patient is taking antibiotics.  Antibiotics,while killing 'bad' bacteria also can kill off 'good' bacteria.  Antibiotics do not act on yeast (which is a fungi), and yeast growth is usually kept in check by good bacteria.  Hence, when the good bacteria die, yeast proliferates.  Kept unchecked a simple yeast infection can travel up the urinary tract into the kidneys and cause kidney infection.  This is dangerous, as an infected kidney can easily infect the blood. 
Kidney infections are not likely to be caused by hormones: Read more about it kidney infection