Identifying the Characteristics of Urine

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1 Briefly identify and discuss the characteristics of urine.
Urine’s color, odor, transparency, pH, volume and concentration are the physical characteristics to describe urine. Urine is a sterile liquid by-product made up of water-soluble nitrogen products. In other words, urine consists of water, ammonia, urea, salts, creatinine, and pigments, such as the urobilin. Urine is a pale yellow to deep amber color and changes depending on a diet, medication, diseases/ infections, and urine concentration and the higher the concentration the deeper the color. Urobilin (urochrome) derived from urobilinogen gives urine its normal yellow color, Fresh urine is slightly aromatic, and the breakdown of urea generates an ammonia odor. In people with diabetes there may be a fruity odor because of ketones or glucose. Turbidity is judged subjectively and can be clear, cloudy, flocculent or opaque and excess turbidity can indicate the presence of suspended particles. The average pH is 6.0 but can range from 4.5 to 8.0, but the diet influences the pH (Marieb & Smith, 2016). Water is the most abundant component accounting for 95% of urine volume and for the 5% of the solutes urea is the largest component (Marieb & Smith, 2016). Water acts as a solvent for the other components in the urine, where high water intake reduces the urine concentration and increases the volume. 2 Briefly id...