VERIFIED CONTENTAuthor: Karolina Karabin, MD, PhD, molecular biologist, laboratory diagnostician, nutrition and lifestyle consultant

Urine glucose is a test parameter for the general urine test. Glucose is a sugar that the body uses as an energy source for cells, and excess glucose in the blood is harmful. Glucose in the urine is one of the tests that allows you to estimate its excess in the body. How to interpret the test result? What does the presence of glucose in the urine show?

Glucose in urine is a disturbing phenomenon that may indicate abnormalities in the functioning of the body.The presence of glucose, or sugar in the urine, is a predictor of diabetes most often, but it can also be a symptom of other diseases.

Glucose in urine - why does it appear?

Glucose is sugar that the body uses as "biological fuel" to produce energy in cells. Although glucose is essential for life, it is very important that its concentration in the blood is kept constant. Under physiological conditions, glucose is almost completely filtered in the renal tubules via glucose transporters called GLUT. Therefore, in he althy people, the presence of glucose in the urine is negligible.

However, in pathological situations, e.g. when the level of glucose in the blood exceeds the resorptive capacity of the renal tubules for glucose. This usually occurs at blood glucose levels above 10 mmol / L (180 mg / dL) and glucose appears in the urine. This condition is also called glucosuria or glucosuria.

Glucose in the urine may also be a consequence of impaired glucose resorption in the renal tubules resulting from kidney diseases (so-called tubular glucosuria). Then the blood glucose is normal, but it still appears in the urine.

Glucose in urine - who should be tested on?

Urine glucose testingin addition to testing the presence of leukocytes, erythrocytes, protein, epithelium and bacteria, it is one of the most frequently ordered urine tests.

Urine glucose testing is recommended for people:

  • with symptoms suggestive of diabetes: fatigue and drowsiness, more frequent urination, increased thirst, difficult wound healing,
  • diagnosed with diabetes to monitor diabetic complications,
  • with suspected hormonal diseases, e.g. Cushing's syndrome,
  • pregnant to detectgestational diabetes,
  • obese.

This examination should also be performed once a year on each person as part of preventive examinations.

Glucose in urine - what is the test and how much does it cost?

Urine for testing is collected immediately after waking up into a special container, which can be obtained at the collection point or bought at a pharmacy. Urine should be collected from the so-called middle stream. Which means that we are passing the first stream of urine to the toilet and only then collecting the urine for testing.

Women during or just after menstruation should not collect urine for examination. It is also important to maintain hygiene around the urethra before collecting it. The collected urine should be delivered to the laboratory as soon as possible on the same day.

In the laboratory, urine glucose is determined using the strip method. It consists in soaking a special strip in the urine sample, which, after contact with glucose in the urine, stains the appropriate color.

The intensity of the color is proportional to the glucose concentration in the urine, which allows the assessment of semi-quantitative glucose concentration. If quantitative urine glucose determination is necessary, it should be performed from the daily urine collection.

The price of a urine glucose test in a commercial laboratory ranges from PLN 5 to PLN 15.

Glucose in urine - what does an incorrect result mean?

A normal urine glucose test result is shown as "normal", "negative", "absent", or "negative" on the result. This means that the glucose level did not exceed its pathological concentration in the urine. However, when the result is positive, it is formulated as follows:

  • (+) low urine glucose
  • (++) moderate urine glucose levels
  • (+++) high urine glucose

Glucose in urine may indicate:

  • diabetes (most common cause)
  • improperly treated diabetes,
  • hereditary kidney diseases, e.g. Fanconi-De Toni-Debry syndrome,
  • kidney diseases e.g. hypertensive nephropathy,
  • liver disease,
  • pituitary tumors,
  • alcoholism,
  • chronic stress.

Glucose in the urine can also appear during pregnancy, but it usually doesn't indicate any pathology.

It is worth knowing that the determination of glucose in urine with its normal blood level requires confirmation of the specificity of such a result. Because urine glucose test strips can give false-positive results when urine contains substances such as vitamin C, salicylates, tetracycline, lactose, fructose andgalactose.

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Research