Start with the center
In the middle of your page, write URINALYSIS (UA) and circle it. Everything branches out from this one node. This is how we build every map in this course, one center, then branches.
Build it in four moves
Draw the three branches
A urinalysis is read in three passes, so your map gets three main branches off the center:
- Macroscopic — what you can see without a microscope
- Chemical / Dipstick — the pad colors on the strip
- Microscopic — what you find under the microscope
Add what you check on each branch
Off each branch, add a leaf for each thing you look at.
- Macroscopic: color, clarity, odor
- Chemical / Dipstick: pH, specific gravity, glucose, ketones, protein, blood, leukocyte esterase, nitrites, bilirubin
- Microscopic: red blood cells, white blood cells, casts, crystals
At the end of each leaf, write what an abnormal result means
This is the part that makes it an interpretation map, not just a list. For each leaf, write what it tells you when the result is not normal. Use the reference table below to fill these in, in your own words.
Worked example: copy this style
One full leaf, start to finish
Chemical / Dipstick → Nitrites → positive (pink) → bacteria are present → most often E. coli → confirm with a culture & sensitivity
Every leaf on your map should read like a little chain: the test, the abnormal result, what it means, and (where the lecture gives one) the next step. Build at least the full Chemical / Dipstick branch this way.
Reference: what each abnormal result suggests
Everything here comes from the Tuesday clinical urinalysis lecture. Put it into your own words on the map, do not copy it word for word.
| Leaf on your map | What an abnormal result suggests |
|---|---|
| Macroscopic | |
| Color | Pale yellow to amber is normal (pigment: urochrome). Pale = dilute, amber = concentrated. Red or dark = blood; green = pseudomonas infection; dark yellow = bilirubin (liver); bright/intense yellow = B vitamins; dark brown after it sits = levodopa (Parkinson's drug). Foods: beets turn it red, rhubarb brown. |
| Clarity | Clear is normal. Cloudy = pus, bacteria, protein, or white blood cells, which points to a UTI. |
| Odor | Sweet, fruity, acetone smell = ketones (diabetic ketoacidosis). Foul smell = UTI. Fecal smell = a fistula between the bowel and the urinary tract. |
| Chemical / Dipstick | |
| pH | Normal ~4.6 to 8 (average 6). More alkaline = UTI, diet, or some meds. More acidic = keto or high-protein diet, starvation, or dehydration. Kidneys and lungs together control body pH. |
| Specific gravity | High = concentrated urine (often dehydration). Low = dilute urine (overhydration or chronic kidney disease). It measures how well the kidney can concentrate urine. |
| Glucose | Positive = high blood sugar (diabetes). Glucose spills into urine once blood glucose passes about 180 to 200. |
| Ketones | Positive = the body is burning fat for fuel: keto diet, type 1 (sometimes type 2) diabetes / DKA, starvation, fasting, or alcoholics who are not eating. |
| Protein (albumin) | Positive = the most important sign of kidney disease; the filter is leaking albumin. In pregnancy it is screened for preeclampsia. Protein plus swelling (edema) = nephrotic syndrome. The dipstick detects albumin only. |
| Blood | Positive = hematuria. It could be true blood (you will see red blood cells under the microscope) or myoglobin from muscle breakdown / rhabdomyolysis (no red blood cells under the microscope). Also infection, stones, trauma, cancer, or menstrual contamination. High vitamin C can cause a false negative. |
| Leukocyte esterase | Positive = white blood cells in the urine, which points to a UTI. |
| Nitrites | Positive = bacteria that turn nitrate into nitrite. Most often E. coli (commonly from wiping back to front). |
| Bilirubin / urobilinogen | Positive = a liver or gallbladder problem (for example gallstones). |
| Microscopic | |
| Red blood cells | Never normal. Points to bleeding: infection, stones, trauma, cancer, glomerulonephritis, or menstrual contamination. Seeing them here is how you tell true blood from myoglobin. |
| White blood cells | More than a few is not normal. Points to infection or inflammation. |
| Casts | Little imprints of the kidney tubules. Hyaline (protein) casts = proteinuria; cellular, granular, waxy, fatty, red-cell, and white-cell casts point to specific kidney diseases. |
| Crystals | A sign that stones may be forming. The crystals themselves are painless; the pain comes from a formed stone or a blockage. |
Then find the pattern: connect findings to diagnoses
So far your map runs one way: finding → what it can mean. But one finding can point to several things, so a real diagnosis is a pattern, the group of findings that show up together. Add a second layer to your map to see it.
Add six diagnosis nodes, then draw the arrows
Around the edge of your map, add these six common results. Then draw an arrow from each finding to every diagnosis it points to, using the table below. One finding, like positive blood, will send arrows to several diagnoses, that is the whole point.
Read the pattern: in a real patient several pads are positive at once. The diagnosis that collects the most arrows, and whose full fingerprint matches, is your best answer. When two diagnoses share a finding, the deciding finding is the one that is different: positive blood with red blood cells on the scope points to infection, stones, or glomerulonephritis; positive blood with no red blood cells points to muscle breakdown instead.
| Diagnosis | Findings that light it up |
|---|---|
| UTI (bladder / kidney infection) | Cloudy, foul odor, leukocyte esterase +, nitrites + (often E. coli), sometimes blood +. Next step: culture & sensitivity to name the bacteria. |
| Uncontrolled diabetes / DKA | Glucose +, ketones +, sweet or fruity (acetone) odor. |
| Glomerulonephritis (filter inflamed) | Protein +, blood +, red-blood-cell casts on the microscope. |
| Rhabdomyolysis (muscle breakdown) | Blood + and protein +, but no red blood cells on the microscope (it is myoglobin, not true blood). |
| Kidney stones / obstruction | Crystals on the microscope, blood +, and pain (the stone or blockage, not the crystals, causes the pain). |
| Liver / gallbladder problem | Bilirubin +, dark-yellow color, urobilinogen. |
How to turn it in
Build your map inside Workbook 1, Part 4 (Box C) using the drawing tools, or draw it on paper and upload a photo in that box. Then Save the workbook as a PDF and submit it on Canvas.
Draw the connections yourself. A typed list or an AI-generated diagram is not a mind map and will not be accepted.