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Crystal
Crystal
Crystal
Uric acid crystals are of varying sizes and shapes, found in acidic urine. They resemble
rhomboids, parallelograms, and rosettes in shape and are amber in color. Though they are seen in
normal urine, are also an indicator of disease processes, such as acute uric acid nephropathy or
urate nephrolithiasis.
Hippuric acid crystals are found in acid, neutral, or slightly alkaline urine. These colorless
crystals are prisms, plates, or needle-like in shape. These crystals are often conglomerated into
masses.
Triple phosphate crystals form in alkaline urine and are composed of magnesium, ammonium
and phosphate. These are rectangular in shape or similar with the coffin lid. These are sometimes
associated with a bacterial urinary tract infection caused by urea splitting bacteria.
These are colorless crystals having shape like blunt ended needles or prisms, rosettes. These
crystals are found in neutral to alkaline pH.
Amorphous Crystals
Amorphous urates are found in acid urine. These crystals may appear pink on gross analysis and
yellow microscopically. These crystals appear as granules in the urine sediment.
Amorphous phosphates are found in alkaline urine. These granules are colorless microscopically.
Crystals that are abnormal in Urine
Bilirubin crystals
Bilirubin crystals are abnormal crystals in urine. They form from conjugated bilirubin and are
needle-like to granular crystals that are yellow in color. They are frequently attached to the
surface of cells. Bilirubin crystals are seen in several hepatic disorders.
Cholesterol Crystals
These appear as colorless rectangular plates with a notch in one or more corners and are found in
acidic urine. The appearance of cholesterol is associated with the Nephrotic Syndrome.
Cysteine Crystals
Cystine crystals are flat colorless plates and have a characteristic hexagonal shape with equal or
unequal sides. They occur in acidic urine that are associated with an inherited disorder. Presence
of cystine crystals represents a proximal tubular defect in amino acid reabsorption.
Leucine Crystals
These are Yellowish-brown spheres with concentric circles with radial striations found in
acidic/neutral urine. Leucine crystals may be seen in liver disorders in which amino acid
metabolism is impaired.
Tyrosine Crystals
Tyrosine crystals appear as colorless/yellow fine needles in acidic/neutral urine. Tyrosine
crystals may be seen in tyrosinemia and in certain liver disorders in which amino acid
metabolism is impaired.
Sulfanomide Crystals
These are flat needles, sheaves of small needles or as spheroids. Often brown in color. The
presence of sulfanomide crystals usually indicates administration of the drug and not necessarily
a pathological condition. However, their presence is also associated with kidney stone formation.