Physicians often ask for urine samples collected over a 24-hour period, rather than a single sample. Why?
2 Answers
Because any one single sample may be highly eschewed by whatever you last ate/drank.
Explanation:
As an example let's say you are a fit individual. Normally your tests would come back fine, but let's say you decided to eat a pound of bacon and drink a 64oz soda and took an urine sample after 1 hour. Your results would test very different from your norm, indicating serious problems.
IF, however the sample was diluted with samples taken throughout the day, reflecting your otherwise healthy diet, it would show just slightly elevated levels due to that one meal.
A physician may ask a patient to collect every drop of urine he/she may produce in a span of 24 hours. This is done to estimate amount of protein going out with urine.
Explanation:
Protein is not supposed to be lost with urine. Abnormal amount of protein in urine is a condition called proteinuria . If lots of protein molecules appear in urine that means filtrering beds of kidney are either damaged or infected.
The diseases which are associated with proteinuria are lupus (autoimmune disease), glomerulonephritis, diabetes, very high blood pressure, etc.
