24-hour urine collection

Your physician has ordered a laboratory test for which you must collect your urine during 24 hours or a timeperiod specified by your physician. 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 container (s). It is a brown, square container 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 tests.

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 what you cannot eat or drink (sometimes with another information brochure).

Forgot to collect a portion of 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 container, 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 container. You may urinate directly into the container or collect the urine in a clean bedpan or measuring cup and then pour it (without spilling!) into the container.
4. The next morning, urinate the first time of the day into the container. After this, the 24-hour urine collection is completed. Make sure the container 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 (thus after the first morning urine 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 container, 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. Write clearly on the container which urine is collected on day 1 and which on day 2.

Cystine in urine collection (day and night collection)

Are you collecting for the laboratory test cystine in urine? The intention for this test is to collect the day and night urine separate from each other. You have received 2 containersfor the test.

• First collection (day urine)

Collect the urine after the first morning urine and collect until and inlcuding the last urine before going to bed.

• Second collection (night urine)

Collect the urine during the night and the first urine of the next morning.

Write clearly on the containers which urine is collected during the day and which during the night.

1. Write on the laboratory form at the end of this instruction, for the day urine (first collection) and night urine (second collection):
   1. The date and end time of the urine collection
   2. The total volume of urine you collected in the bottle. See the scale on the side of the bottle.

Collected 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 containers. If you 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 is finished.

Instructions for taking a urine sample from the container 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 container is closed well with the yellow cap to prevent spills.
2. Mix the urine in the container 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 container.
4. Turn the container 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 container.

When do you bring the collected urine to the hospital?

Bring the urine container (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? 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 tests.

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 container (s)/tube(s).