- Urine tests allow the detection of numerous pathologies and the collection of numerous elements about our health.
- A valuable diagnostic tool which is the subject of innovations presented at CES in Las Vegas, in the United States.
- But what is the point of regularly testing your urine and what are the major innovations in urine screening? “20 Minutes” explains everything to you.
It is a reflection of our general state. His color, its smell, and more, the numerous screening tests allow us to read a multitude of information about our health in our urine. It is even the subject of an innovation presented at CES in Las Vegas, the world’s largest technological innovation show: Uriki, a device connected urine analysis, developed by the Toulouse start-up Iki. The objective: to make the daily lives of patients suffering from chronic illnesses easier by allowing them to carry out urine tests at home.
But for the general public, is there any major benefit in testing urine regularly? Is it risky? While urine tests already make it possible to screen for a range of pathologies and to detect the presence of various substances and elements in the body, innovation in urine screening continues, and the applications it suggests are very promising. .
Daily monitoring “no major interest”
The advantage of the Uriki connected kit is that you can save yourself the hassle of going to the analysis laboratory to place your small bottle there, by carrying out your urine analysis yourself, in complete privacy at home, on a strip that simply inserts into a reader, which transmits the results to the healthcare professional using the associated app. An idea born in the head of Christophe Cau, a nanophysics engineer in Toulouse, after suffering several times from painful renal colic with kidney stones. The goal: to prevent the return of kidney stones by monitoring the composition of your urine daily.
An innovation that perplexes biologists. “First, if you have a suspicion of renal colic, you have to go to the doctor,” says Dr. Lionel Barrand, medical biologist and president of the Union of Medical Biologists, and we should make comparisons of raw performance compared to the exams that we perform on machines. Then, this system is mainly based on the presence of urea, the analysis of which was defunded by Health Insurance due to lack of diagnostic utility. In addition, there is a risk of misuse: 70% of analysis errors are linked to pre-analytical problems, the way in which the part before analysis is managed, and which can distort the results. And in practice, testing your urine every day would have more of an anxiety-provoking effect than a medical usefulness, he believes. Even diabetic patients, who need regular monitoring, generally only need one or two urine tests per year.”
This device “could be of interest to people prone to kidney stones, but it is a very targeted population, for whom prevention and dietary measures make it possible to avoid recurrence,” explains Dr. François Blanchecotte, medical biologist and president of the Union of Biologists. As for the general public, there is no major interest in knowing every day whether calcium or uric acid sediments are emitted in their urine. Scientific innovation is exciting, but the question arises of the usefulness of these tests.”
A very fine screening tool
On the other hand, urine screening is a valuable tool in biology. It already makes it possible to detect pregnancies, “as well as the presence of narcotics, it is even the most effective screening method,” emphasizes Dr. Blanchecotte. Urine tests also make it possible to identify the presence of product residues such as pesticides.”
But also urinary or sexually transmitted infections (STIs). From now on, in the event of a urinary infection, it is possible to do a urine test directly in a pharmacy to receive treatment, without having to consult your doctor. Furthermore, “urinary screening is the most effective technique for detecting in men the mycoplasma genitalium, the STI which is the second cause of urethritis, an infection of the urethra, informs Dr. Barrand. From the end of January, a decree will establish coverage by Health Insurance for screening for this STI in the event of symptoms. This clearly shows the importance of urine screening in biology.”
Innovations to improve the diagnosis of certain cancers
In practice, “urine drains all the residues circulating in the body,” says Dr. Blanchecotte. So there are still many areas to explore to develop new screening methods.” New medical applications that could quickly become operational. The prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has just developed a technology supposed to facilitate the diagnosis of lung cancer. The tool relies on nanosensors that can be delivered by an inhaler, and which, if they encounter cancer-related proteins in the lungs, produce a signal that accumulates in the urine. The cancer can then be detected using a simple paper urine strip.
According to the researchers, this technique could be of major interest in countries that do not have widespread access to expensive diagnostic tools that already exist. “Across the world, cancer will be increasingly prevalent in low- and middle-income countries. The epidemiology of lung cancer globally is linked to pollution and smoking. So we know that these are contexts where accessibility to this type of technology could have a big impact,” says Sangeeta Bhatia, professor of health sciences, technology, and electrical and computer engineering at MIT, and member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.
“Whether through urine or blood, biology has been revolutionized,” rejoices Dr. Barrand, particularly in oncology: there are urine tests, not yet reimbursed to date, which can detect certain blood cancers, myeloma. with light chains, for which it is the only tool screening that we have available.” Without forgetting “companion tests,” adds Dr. Blanchecotte, “which make it possible, through urine, to determine whether a patient would benefit from receiving targeted therapy.” The companion test “makes it possible to improve therapeutic decision-making as well as the clinical evolution of patients”, confirms the High Authority for Health. “All these elements are arriving on the market,” emphasizes Dr. Blanchecotte, “and illustrate the importance of not being behind in innovation.”