24-hour urine collection

Your physician has ordered a laboratory test for which you must collect your urine for 24 hours. Carefully read the instructions below before starting the urine collection.

Preparation what do you need?

• Make sure you have the following items before starting with the 24-hour urine collection:
• This instruction ‘24-hour urine collection’.
• Urine collection bottle(s). It is a brown, square bottle with a yellow cap.
• A transparent tube with a brown cap. Only if necessary you will receive this together with the bottle.

Important information in advance

Menstruation and stool during urine collection

Do not collect urine when you are menstruating. Also make sure the urine is not contaminated with feces. Urine mixed with (traces of) blood or feces cannot be used for the laboratory investigation.

Diet
Depending on the purpose of the laboratory test you may not be allowed to eat and/or drink before and/or during the urine collection. If applicable, your physician has explained you (sometimes with another information brochure) what you cannot eat or drink.

Forgetting to collect urine
If you forgot to collect a portion of urine during the 24-hour then the collection has failed. You have to discard the already collected urine in the bottle, rinse the jar with water (no soap) and then start over the next morning.

Instructions for collecting 24-hour urine

1. When you get up in the morning, urinate the first time into the toilet. Empty your bladder as completely as possible. This urine is not collected.
2. Write your personal details, the date and the time of urinating into the toilet on the laboratory form at the end of this instruction. This is the start time of the urine collection.
3. Collect all your urine during the rest of the day and night in the bottle. You may urinate directly into the bottle or collect the urine in a clean bedpan or measuring cup and then pour it (without spilling!) into the bottle.
4. The next morning, urinate the first time of the day into the bottle. After this, the 24-hour urine collection is completed. Make sure the bottle is closed well and keep it in the refrigerator.
5. Write on the laboratory form at the end of this instruction:
   1. The date and end time of the urine collection (after the first morning pee on day 2);
   2. The total volume of urine you collected in the bottle(s). See the scale on the side of the bottle.
      

Do you have to collect urine for two days (2 times 24-hour urine)?

Continue directly with the urine collection in the second bottle, follow steps 2 to 5 again. Fill out the date, start time, end time and the volume of urine you collected on day 2 under ‘Second collection’ on the laboratory form.

More than 3 liters of urine

If your physician expects you to urinate more than 3 liter in 24 hours you will receive 2 collection bottles. If jou also received a tube, you do not have to fill it, you hand in both bottles at the poli Bloedafname (blood collection) when the collection finished.

Instructions for taking a urine sample from the bottle with a tube

If you received a tube with a brown cap, follow the instructions below to take a sample from the bottle.

1. Check if the bottle is closed well with the yellow cap to prevent spills.
2. Mix the urine in the bottle by slowly inverting the bottle 4 to 5 times.
3. Remove the sticker from the yellow cap. Be careful for your fingers, there is a needle in the cap of the bottle.
4. Turn the bottle upside down.
5. Push the brown cap of the tube into the opening of the yellow cap. The urine starts to flow into the tube. Hold in position, until the flow stops, then remove the tube.
   If you collected 2 x 24-hour urine (in two separate bottles) then you follow the steps above to take two separate urine samples from each bottle (so you will have 2 tubes).
   Note on the tubes from which jar the urine was filled (which day). If you needed 2 jars for the collection in 24 hours, you do not need to fill the tube, but return both jars
6. Write your name, date of birth and the amount of urine in the bottle (the same amount you wrote on the laboratory form) on the sticker of the filled tube. You can discard the bottle.

When do you bring the collected urine to the hospital?

Bring the urine bottle(s) or sample tube(s) to the Polilaboratory at location AMC or VUmc on the same morning that you finished the collection. Please see the location and opening hours at the bottom of the laboratory form.

Is this not possible for you? Then you can keep the urine in your fridge (4 degrees) for a maximum of two days. Always discuss this with the laboratory in advance (for example when you pick up the collection bottles), because this is not possible for all laboratory investigations.

Laboratory form 24-hour urine collection

If you have received a paper lab form, you may also record the following information on that form.

Where to bring the collected urine and this form?

Please bring the collected urine (one or more bottle(s) and/or sample tube(s)), together with this completed laboratory form, to:

• Location AMC, poli Bloedafname (blood collection)
  Building Q, ground floor, route 41.
  Open on working days between 08.00 am and 16.30 pm.
  Telephone: 020 - 566 5877 or 020 - 566 2384.
• Location VUmc, poli Bloedafname (blood collection)
  Reception P, outpatient clinic building, first floor.
  Open on working days between 07.30 am and 17.00 pm.
  Telephone: 020 - 444 5416.

Make sure your name and date of birth are written on the bottle(s)/tube(s).