Hematuria simply put means “blood in urine”. Hematuria is a general term meaning any amount of blood in the urine.

Hematuria may appear as red urine and pink urine which is the easiest sign that you have blood in your bladder. Red urine may not be from red blood cells in your urine, it could be red due to food such as rhubarb, food coloring, blackberries, beets or beet soup (borscht).

On your initial visit to the Columbia University Department of Urology at the Mount Sinai Medical Center you give the list of medication that you are taking. Since medication may affect the appearance of your urine. Your list of medications can help to more accurately diagnose your hematuria.

Common medication will make your urine red without blood cells being present such as laxatives, Diprivan, and Thorazine. Other medication may allow red blood cells to be introduced into your urine such as the blood thinners aspirin and Coumadin. Mercury, arsenic, and lead poisoning may turn urine red or purple with pigments from blood cells.
Hematuria may look tea colored or brown which can be also caused by beans, aloe, and once again rhubarb. Medications that make urine a tea color include laxatives, anti-malaria meds, antibiotics, and muscle relaxants.

Terms Used to Describe Hematuria

• Microhematuria - blood seen in a microscope yet clinically relevant
  
• Gross – visually able to see blood in the urine
  
• Frank - unmistakable blood in urine or clinically evident
  
• Microscopic - blood seen in a microscope yet clinically relevant
  
• Macroscopic – distinguishing color ex. Red, pink, brown, tea, etc
  
• Chronic – blood consistently found upon analysis
  
• Acute – suddenly appearing, becoming worse, and then stopping
  
• Episodic – appears and disappears with other biological occurrences.
  
• Recurrent – frequent occurrence
  
• Transient – temporary, comes and goes
  
• Persistent – all the time
  
• Pseudohematuria – not caused by red blood cells
  
• Idiopathic – the cause is not understood or been determined
  
• Joggers – caused from jogging or running

Hematuria comes about through many medical complications. To see a list of the top ten serious urinary problems related to hematuria go to the blood in urine website.

Hematuria will be verified at first when a dipstick is placed into your urine sample and/or from the results of a laboratory test of your urine specimen. If it is determined that you do have hematuria then several procedures may take place that will either find the cause of the blood or it will clear you of most of the serious urinary problems.