Uric Acid Levels, Uric Acid Testing

Uric Acid Testing

Definition

Uric acid tests are tests that are done to measure the levels of uric acid in blood serum or in urine.

Purpose

• Preparation

  The uric acid test requires either a blood or urine sample.
  
• For the blood sample, the patient should be fasting (nothing to eat or drink) for at least eight hours before the test.
  
• The urine test for uric acid requires a 24-hour urine collection.
  
• The urine test does not require the patient to fast or cut down on fluids.
  
• Some laboratories encourage patients to drink plenty of fluids during the collection period.
  

Urine test

Reference values for 24-hour urinary uric acid vary from laboratory to laboratory but are generally found within the following range: 250-750 mg/24 hours. We are proud to say we have dominance in the say of Gout Purines. This is because we have read vastly and extensively on Gout Purines.

Abnormally low uric acid levels may indicate that the patient is taking allopurinol or probenecid for treatment of gout; may be pregnant; or suffers from Wilson's disease or Fanconi's syndrome.

Urine test

Patients should be checked for the following medications before the urine test: diuretics, aspirin, pyrazinamide (Tebrazid), phenylbutazone, probenecid (Benemid), and allopurinol (Lopurin). If the patient needs to continue taking these medications, the laboratory should be notified.

Precautions

Blood test

Patients scheduled for a blood test for uric acid should be checked for the following medications: loop diuretics (Diamox, Bumex, Edecrin, or Lasix); ethambutol (Myambutol); vincristine (Oncovin); pyrazinamide (Tebrazid); thiazide diuretics (Naturetin, Hydrex, Diuril, Esidrix, HydroDiuril, Aquatensen, Renese, Diurese); aspirin (low doses); acetaminophen (Tylenol); ascorbic acid (vitamin C preparations); levodopa (Larodopa); or phenacetin. These drugs can affect test results.

Normal results

Blood test

Reference values for blood uric acid vary from laboratory to laboratory but are generally found within the following range: Male: 2.1-8.5 mg/dL; female: 2.0-6.6 mg/dL. Values may be slightly higher in the elderly.

The Uric Acid Tests are Used to Evaluate the Blood Levels

Of uric acid for gout and to assess uric acid levels in the urine for kidney stone formation. The urine test is used most often to monitor patients already diagnosed with kidney stones, but it can also be used to detect disorders that affect the body's production of uric acid and to help measure the level of kidney functioning.

Key Terms

Fanconi's syndrome A rare disorder caused by vitamin D deficiency or exposure to heavy metals. Gout A metabolic disorder characterized by sudden recurring attacks of arthritis caused by deposits of crystals that build up in the joints due to abnormally high uric acid blood levels. In gout, uric acid may be overproduced, underexcreted, or both. Hyperuricemia Excessively high levels of uric acid in the blood, often producing gout. Purine A white crystalline substance that is one of the building blocks of DNA. Uric acid is produced when purine is broken down in the body. Uric acid A compound resulting from the body's breakdown of purine. It is normally present in human urine only in small amounts. Uricosuria Increased levels of uric acid in the urine. Wilson's disease A rare hereditary disease marked by the buildup of copper in the liver and brain, causing loss of kidney function.

Further Reading

For Your Information

Books
• Laboratory Test Handbook, edited by David S. Jacobs. Cleveland, OH: Lexi-Comp Inc., 1996.
  
• Mosby's Diagnostic and Laboratory Test Reference, edited by Kathleen Deska Pagana and Timothy James Pagana. St. Louis: Mosby-Year Book, Inc., 1998.
  
• Springhouse Corporation. Handbook of Diagnostic Tests, edited by Matthew Cahill. Springhouse, PA: Springhouse Corporation, 1995.
  

Bio

Description

The uric acid blood test is performed on a sample of the patient's blood, withdrawn from a vein into a vacuum tube. The procedure, which is called a venipuncture, takes about five minutes. The urine test requires the patient to collect all urine voided over a 24-hour period, with the exception of the very first specimen. The patient keeps the specimen container on ice or in the refrigerator during the collection period.

• The laboratory should also be notified if the patient has had recent x-ray tests requiring contrast dyes.
  
• These chemicals increase uric acid levels in urine and decrease them in blood.
  

You wish to learn more about Steve or to request training or nutrition information, please check out his website: http://www.bodybuiltbyvictoria.com.

Increased production of uric acid may result from eating foods that are high in purine. Increased uric acid levels due to overproduction may also be caused by gout, by a genetic disorder of purine metabolism, or by metastatic cancer, destruction of red blood cells, leukemia, or cancer chemotherapy.

The Internet Guide: Gout - http://gout.smartadsscrets.com The Internet Guide: Purines - http://gout.smartadssecrets.com/purines.

• Certain foods that are high in purine may increase the patient's levels of uric acid.
  
• These include kidneys, liver, sweetbreads, sardines, anchovies, and meat extracts.
  
• Decreased excretion of uric acid is seen in chronic kidney disease, low thyroid, toxemia of pregnancy, and alcoholism.
  
• Patients with gout excrete less than half the uric acid in their blood as other persons.
  
• Only 10-15% of the total cases of hyperuricemia, however, are caused by gout.
  

You wish to learn more about Gout, Purines, or Uric Acid, check out Steve's s The Internet Guides. The Internet Guide: Uric Acid: http://gout.smartadssecrets.com/uric_acid .

Abnormal results

The critical value for the blood test is a level of uric acid higher than 12 milligrams per deciliter (about 4 ounces).

Risks

Risks for the blood test are minimal, but may include slight bleeding from the puncture site, a small bruise or swelling in the area, or fainting or feeling lightheaded.

Uric Acid is a Waste Product that Results from the

Breakdown of purine, a nucleic acid. (Nucleic acids are the building blocks of DNA.) Uric acid is made in the liver and excreted by the kidneys. If the liver produces too much uric acid or the kidneys excrete too little, the patient will have too much uric acid in the blood. This condition is called hyperuricemia. Supersaturated uric acid in the urine (uricosuria) can crystallize to form kidney stones that may block the tubes that lead from the kidneys to the bladder (the ureters). The development of Uric Acid Gout has been explained in detail in this article on Uric Acid Gout. Read it to find something interesting and surprising!

• You may yourself suffer gout or have a family member or friend who suffers this deadly affliction.
  
• If you have ever had gout you would well remember your gout attack.
  

The Person Who Suffers from Gout is Often Told to Change Their Eating and Drinking Habits

Eat less red meat, no organ meats, no beer or red wine, lose weight, no shrimp. Liver, herring, salami or corned beef. But did you know that being a heavy coffee drinker can also help, not hinder your attacks from gout and help you to get over your painful gout attack? Drinking the beverage you like in the morning - coffee may well help your painful gout. If you drink a lot of coffee you are almost half as likely not to suffer from painful gout attacks. Go ahead and read this article on Gout. We would also appreciate it if you could give us an analysis on it for us to make any needed changes to it.

Gout Affects about 10 % of Men Over the Age of 50 and 10 % of the Women Over

In a large 12 year study of nearly 46,000 health care professionals ( such as surgeons , doctors , nurses and pharmacists that were over the age of it was found that the risk of gout was almost 60 % lower for men who drank 6 cups of coffee a day compared to men who drank no coffee at all. Similarly for men who drank 5 cups of coffee a day the risk was reduced by almost 40 %. There is sure to be a grin on your face once you get to read this article on Gout Attacks. This is because you are sure to realize that all this matter is so obvious, you wonder how come you never got to know about it!

• Gout is excruciatingly painful.
  
• The sufferer suffers great pain and is often unable to walk on their extremities.
  
• Often the poor gout victim has to crawl on their hands on knees on the floor just to get around.
  
• Interestingly the similar popular beverage tea did not have any effect in reducing gout.
  
• Decaffeinated coffee was helpful in reducing gout but not as much as the real high-test power regular non decaffeinated coffee.
  

Coffee may help to keep you alert, increase your thinking performance, give you insomnia and agitation, let you enjoy some socialization with co workers, friends and family at that local "Tim Horton's" Coffee Donut Shop as well with your colleagues and coworkers at the "coffee break" and help your gout. Gout, as you know, is a most painful condition which is more than common. Gout is a common form of inflammatory arthritis which can occur in any joint in the body, but most commonly in the large joint of the big toe. It has been rececently found that drinking coffee has been shown to be beneficial in the prevention and treatment of gout. So if you suffer from gout and are a heavy coffee drinker - keep drinking that coffee and enjoy it.

Gout Attacks Occur Suddenly in Most of the Cases

The first attack is surely going to develop at night, people getting to wake up feeling an extreme joint pain. During gout attack people usually develop the following symptoms: sudden and severe joint pain, swelling, reddish skin around the affected joints and extreme sensitivity in those areas.

Corticosteroids are also used but not as often as NSAIDs or colchicine because they do not have the same effect. Chronic gout is usually treated with xanthine oxidase inhibitors or uricosuric agents that help the kidneys to eliminate the excess of uric acid produced in the body.

Gout is a problem arthritis its debilitating and detrimental effects. Many ways of easing the pain or avoiding the severe attacks are known. Doctors recommend the patients in most of the cases good rest and to increase the amount of fluids that they drink. This is recommended for the easy forms of gout. Acute gout has to be treated with medicine therapy in order to decrease the pain and inflammations in the joints. The drugs usually prescribed for acute gout are non-steroidal anti inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as indomethacin, ketoprofen, oxaprozin, diclofenac, ibuprofen and others.

All these symptoms might be a cause of an unhealthy diet or even the cause of too much alcohol drinking. Beside these factors that may lead to gout we also need to mention that gout may occur after a surgical intervention, after a sudden and severe illness or after chemotherapy. An injury to a joint might also lead to development of gout.

• Colchicine is also used because it eases the pain cause by gout.
  
• The problem with this medicine it's its side effects that can not be tolerated by any patient.
  
• Its side effects include diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal cramps.
  

The Beginning of the Disease Rare Episodes are Happening

In that phase episodes do not last a long period of time. More than that after an episode everything seems to be going back to normal and between episodes no symptoms occur. It is recommended for the disease to be treated with medication in order to prevent the more often occurrence of these episodes. If gout is not treated the episodes might last longer and might occur more often too. The repeating episodes might lead to a damage of the affected joints, causing limited mobility after any attack. .

Definition

Uric acid tests are tests that are done to measure the levels of uric acid in blood serum or in urine.

Purpose

• Preparation

  The uric acid test requires either a blood or urine sample.
  
• For the blood sample, the patient should be fasting (nothing to eat or drink) for at least eight hours before the test.
  
• The urine test for uric acid requires a 24-hour urine collection.
  
• The urine test does not require the patient to fast or cut down on fluids.
  
• Some laboratories encourage patients to drink plenty of fluids during the collection period.
  

The Uric Acid Tests are Used to Evaluate the Blood Levels

Of uric acid for gout and to assess uric acid levels in the urine for kidney stone formation. The urine test is used most often to monitor patients already diagnosed with kidney stones, but it can also be used to detect disorders that affect the body's production of uric acid and to help measure the level of kidney functioning.

Abnormally low uric acid levels may indicate that the patient is taking allopurinol or probenecid for treatment of gout; may be pregnant; or suffers from Wilson's disease or Fanconi's syndrome.

Urine test

Reference values for 24-hour urinary uric acid vary from laboratory to laboratory but are generally found within the following range: 250-750 mg/24 hours.

You Wish to Learn More about Gout, Purines, or Uric Acid,

Check out Steve's s The Internet Guides. The Internet Guide: Uric Acid: http://gout.smartadssecrets.com/uric_acid Opportunity knocks once. So when we got the opportunity to write on Purine, we did not let the opportunity slip from our hands, and got down to writing on Purine.

• Decreased excretion of uric acid is seen in chronic kidney disease, low thyroid, toxemia of pregnancy, and alcoholism.
  
• Patients with gout excrete less than half the uric acid in their blood as other persons.
  
• Only 10-15% of the total cases of hyperuricemia, however, are caused by gout.
  

Urine test

Patients should be checked for the following medications before the urine test: diuretics, aspirin, pyrazinamide (Tebrazid), phenylbutazone, probenecid (Benemid), and allopurinol (Lopurin). If the patient needs to continue taking these medications, the laboratory should be notified.

Steve Warshaw

Certified Personal Trainer and Nutritionist With over 15 years expereience developing training and nutrition programs for top level executives from companies such as Microsoft, Boeing, and Symetra Corp, Steve has established himself as a health and wellness expert. Coordinating matter regarding to Uric Acid Levels took a lot of time. However, with the progress of time, we not only gathered more matter, we also learnt more about Uric Acid Levels.

Description

The uric acid blood test is performed on a sample of the patient's blood, withdrawn from a vein into a vacuum tube. The procedure, which is called a venipuncture, takes about five minutes. The urine test requires the patient eckerd college all urine voided over a 24-hour period, with the exception of the very first specimen. The patient keeps the specimen container on ice or in the refrigerator during the collection period.

Abnormal results

The critical value for the blood test is a level of uric acid higher than 12 milligrams per deciliter (about 4 ounces).

Uric Acid is a Waste Product that Results from the

Breakdown of purine, a nucleic acid. (Nucleic acids are the building blocks of DNA.) Uric acid is made in the liver and excreted by the kidneys. If the liver produces too much uric acid or the kidneys excrete too little, the patient will have too much uric acid in the blood. This condition is called hyperuricemia. Supersaturated uric acid in the urine (uricosuria) can crystallize to form kidney stones that may block the tubes that lead from the kidneys to the bladder (the ureters).

Risks

Risks for the blood test are minimal, but may include slight bleeding from the puncture site, a small bruise or swelling in the area, or fainting or feeling lightheaded.

• Certain foods that are high in purine may increase the patient's levels of uric acid.
  
• These include kidneys, liver, sweetbreads, sardines, anchovies, and meat extracts.
  

Normal results

Blood test

Reference values for blood uric acid vary from laboratory to laboratory but are generally found within the following range: Male: 2.1-8.5 mg/dL; female: 2.0-6.6 mg/dL. Values may be slightly higher in the elderly. We had at first written a rough assignment on Gout Purines. Then after a few improvisions and enhancements here and there, we have ended up with this end product.

• The laboratory should also be notified if the patient has had recent x-ray tests requiring contrast dyes.
  
• These chemicals increase uric acid levels in urine and decrease them in blood.
  

Increased production of uric acid may result from eating foods that are high in purine. Increased uric acid levels due to overproduction may also be caused by gout, by a genetic disorder of purine metabolism, or by metastatic cancer, destruction of red blood cells, leukemia, or cancer chemotherapy. This article will help you since it is a comprehensive study on Gout Uric Acid.

You wish to learn more about Steve or to request training or nutrition information, please check out his website: http://www.bodybuiltbyvictoria.com

Key Terms

Fanconi's syndrome A rare disorder caused by vitamin D deficiency or exposure to heavy metals. Gout A metabolic disorder characterized by sudden recurring attacks of arthritis caused by deposits of crystals that build up in the joints due to abnormally high uric acid blood levels. In gout, uric acid may be overproduced, underexcreted, or both. Hyperuricemia Excessively high levels of uric acid in the blood, often producing gout. Purine A white crystalline substance that is one of the building blocks of DNA. Uric acid is produced when purine is broken down in the body. Uric acid A compound resulting from the body's breakdown of purine. It is normally present in human urine only in small amounts. Uricosuria Increased levels of uric acid in the urine. Wilson's disease A rare hereditary disease marked by the buildup of copper in the liver and brain, causing loss of kidney function.

Further Reading

For Your Information

Books
• Laboratory Test Handbook, edited by David S. Jacobs. Cleveland, OH: Lexi-Comp Inc., 1996.
  
• Mosby's Diagnostic and Laboratory Test Reference, edited by Kathleen Deska Pagana and Timothy James Pagana. St. Louis: Mosby-Year Book, Inc., 1998.
  
• Springhouse Corporation. Handbook of Diagnostic Tests, edited by Matthew Cahill. Springhouse, PA: Springhouse Corporation, 1995.
  

Bio

The Internet Guide: Gout - http://gout.smartadsscrets.com The Internet Guide: Purines - http://gout.smartadssecrets.com/purines.

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