Most hematology departments do urinalysis but microbiology at Mayo claimed it for their own. Yes, it is sought after lab test. That may sound weird and gross to many (probably most) of you but if you ever tried working in a hospital's laboratory you'd realize why. You find lots of neat stuff, particularly the crystals. Its like finding Rupies in the Zelda games. Here are some images to show you just how pretty urine can be.
Calcium Oxalate like what I saw on my slide today.
Tyrosine. I saw this one on a Urine Eos slide the other day too which shocked me since its fairly rare. For any ladies that noted my urinalysis chart I used to have hanging in the bathroom of my old apartment at CT, this was one of 3 things I never did see on a urinalysis slide.
Starch. They like to say it makes a maltese cross but I'm pretty sure most of us don't know what maltese means. If you look up just the word maltese it pulls up a bunch of dogs which I guess are also maltese.
Uric Acid with calcium oxalate. It's pretty fun with multiple crystals all on the same slide.
Yeast with hyphae.
Well, unfortunately for me, urinalysis won't be coming back to Hematology/Pathology. We do get to look forward to Bone Marrow Smears, Platelet Aggregation Assays, Cytology, etc. but for now I'll just have to reminisce on those fond memories of Crystals, budding yeast, fluttering trichamonas, etc.
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