Urinary patterns associated with different kidney diseases

Urinary pattern	Kidney disease suggested by pattern
Hematuria with dysmorphic red blood cells, red blood cell casts, varying degrees of albuminuria	Proliferative glomerulonephritis (eg, IgA nephropathy, ANCA-associated vasculitis, lupus nephritis)
Heavy albuminuria with minimal or absent hematuria	Nonproliferative glomerulopathy (eg, diabetes, amyloidosis, membranous nephropathy, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, minimal change)
Multiple granular and epithelial cell casts with free epithelial cells	Acute tubular necrosis in a patient with underlying acute kidney injury
Isolated pyuria	Infection (bacterial, mycobacterial) or tubulointerstitial disease
Abnormal kidney function with normal dipstick and sediment containing few cells, no casts, and no or minimal proteinuria	Prerenal acute kidney injury due to either volume contraction or an effective decrease in circulating volume (eg, heart failure, liver disease) Hypercalcemia Light chain cast nephropathy in multiple myeloma Tumor lysis syndrome Vascular disease that produces glomerular ischemia but not infarction (eg, hypertensive emergency, scleroderma, thrombotic microangiopathies) or that affects extraglomerular vessels (eg, cholesterol atheroemboli, polyarteritis nodosa) Urinary tract obstruction

IgA: immunoglobulin A; ANCA: antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody.

Graphic 56160 Version 11.0