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Abnormal finding in my urine; microbiology

pattismith

Senior Member
Messages
3,931
my symptoms were urination emergency and burning at urination.

Here what I found in my urine sediment.... I don't know what it is...
Shape is ovoid and stable, but size vary pretty much from the size of a platelet to the size of an epithelial cell. I can't see any nucleus in it and the wall of the cell is rather thick.

@Hip @Pyrrhus any idea?
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Wishful

Senior Member
Messages
5,684
Location
Alberta
My guess is the round ones are simply lipids formed into bubbles. That's what lipids do in the right environment, which is how life developed cell walls in the first place. However, it could indicate abnormal conditions for the urinary tract (too acidic/basic, or too much lipids or whatever).

My guess for the ragged sheet bits is urinary tract membrane flakes--like dandruff. Whether that's normal or whether it indicates some sort of irritation (infection or toxin) is beyond me.
 

pattismith

Senior Member
Messages
3,931
Well, first, you're a real scientist to stain your own urine! What stain did you use?

I'm not sure I can give a better explanation than a standard urinalysis with urine culture.

But there's some very interesting information in this article:
https://academic.oup.com/labmed/article/32/3/153/2504199
it's a Giemsa staining.
I am trained to basic cytology, and I can say this doesn't look like a cell of the uro-genital tract, nor even a blood cell.
Maybe some yeast or some protozoa, but it doesn't look like candida, nor like the protozoa already described in urine (Trichomonas vaginalis doesn't have a symetrical shape).
Originally, I had planed to send some urine to a lab, but I took oral tinidazole (likely to kill any protozoa and some bacteria), and now I can't find the ovoid shapes anymore, so all I have to make a diagnose is my stained sample....
I will try to find more about it, thank you for your help.
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
Googling "protozoa in urine" brings up this:
Only one major protozoan species causes infections in the urogenital system. Trichomoniasis, or “trich,” is the most common nonviral STI and is caused by a flagellated protozoan Trichomonas vaginalis.

Then looking at Google images for Trichomoniasis in urine brings up oval shapes similar to yours.



Trichomonas vaginalis doesn't have a symetrical shape

They look symmetrical in the Google image pictures.
 

pattismith

Senior Member
Messages
3,931

pattismith

Senior Member
Messages
3,931
After two weeks I checked my urine again and the things are back.

I had my urine checked by a local laboratory but they have no idea about it. Maybe a kind of round shape cristal?
 

Pyrrhus

Senior Member
Messages
4,172
Location
U.S., Earth
I had my urine checked by a local laboratory but they have no idea about it. Maybe a kind of round shape cristal?

Sorry to hear that it came back! At least you now know that it responds to tinidazole.

Is it possible to take tinidazole for a longer term? Or metronidazole or nitazoxanide?

I would hope that the urine lab should be able to identify crystals, I thought that crystals were easy to identify under the microscope?
 

pattismith

Senior Member
Messages
3,931
I would hope that the urine lab should be able to identify crystals, I thought that crystals were easy to identify under the microscope?
The Doc at the lab told me he couldn't identify it for sure, but he wonder about oxalate crystal.

After some investigations with google I think he may be right!

I found this picture on twitter with this comment:

"Polarized light reveals a
@Bulgariofficial
like pattern on the calcium oxalate monohydrate crystals! "



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pattismith

Senior Member
Messages
3,931
Ellipsoid crystals? That's new to me!

At least they're beautiful under polarized light!
That's new to me too !
Interesting that the docs from my local laboratory doesn't know it either... It may be uncommon or overloocked !
Here the photo of my urine sediment yesterday (iphone + microscope/no staining), it looks quite similar to the picture on twitter. Now I have to figure what to do with these crystals...



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Last edited:

lint7

Senior Member
Messages
116
What level of magnification is this? i.e., roughly how large are the "crystals"?

What do you mean when you say urine sediment? Did you centrifuge your urine? How was the sample prepared?

Do you think the disappearance after Tinidazole is coincidence? Or maybe there is an infection causing the formation of these crystals?
 

pattismith

Senior Member
Messages
3,931
What level of magnification is this? i.e., roughly how large are the "crystals"?

What do you mean when you say urine sediment? Did you centrifuge your urine? How was the sample prepared?

Do you think the disappearance after Tinidazole is coincidence? Or maybe there is an infection causing the formation of these crystals?

you can compare the size of the crystal to the size of the epithelial cells. Crystals size vary from a nucleus size to a third of an epithelial cell.

Yes the disappearance after Tinidazole was a coincidence caused by the fact I paid attention to drink much more during some days to improve my urinary problem.:thumbsup:

And yes you need to prepare your urine sediment after centrifugation.
 
Messages
62
@pattismith I understand you have neuropathy problems too. I wonder if tinidazole made any difference to that (assuming worse) because it is very similar to metronidazole which is known to be neurotoxic
 

pattismith

Senior Member
Messages
3,931
@pattismith I understand you have neuropathy problems too. I wonder if tinidazole made any difference to that (assuming worse) because it is very similar to metronidazole which is known to be neurotoxic
I can't tolerate Metronidazole .
I found Tinidazole hard to tolerate...after a single dose, I got three very bad days with a strong head pain: it was a concern, but hopefully it was quickly gone.