Specific Gravity and Disease
Adults generally have a specific gravity in the range of 1.010 to 1.025. Increases in specific gravity (hypersthenuria, i.e. increased concentration of solutes in the urine) may be associated with dehydration, diarrhea, emesis, excessive sweating, urinary tract/bladder infection, glucosuria, renal artery stenosis, hepatorenal syndrome, decreased blood flow to the kidney (especially as a result of heart failure), and excess of antidiuretic hormone caused by Syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone. A specific gravity greater than 1.035 is consistent with frank dehydration. In neonates, normal urine specific gravity is 1.003. Hypovolemic patients usually have a specific gravity >1.015.
Decreased specific gravity (hyposthenuria, i.e. decreased concentration of solutes in urine) may be associated with renal failure, pyelonephritis, diabetes insipidus, acute tubular necrosis, interstitial nephritis, and excessive fluid intake (e.g., psychogenic polydipsia).
Osmolality is normally used for more detailed analysis but USG remains popular for its convenience.
Read more about this topic: Urine Specific Gravity
Famous quotes containing the words specific, gravity and/or disease:
“In effect, to follow, not to force the public inclination; to give a direction, a form, a technical dress, and a specific sanction, to the general sense of the community, is the true end of legislature.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)
“Grown beyond nature now, soft food for worms,
They lift frail heads in gravity and good faith.”
—Derek Mahon (b. 1941)
“For somehow this disease inheres in tyranny, never to trust one’s friends.”
—Aeschylus (525–456 B.C.)