Examination: Urinanalysis

Urinalysis and a beta-hCG test are investigations for gall stones.

Unconjugated bilirubin (produced in excess in haemolysis) will not appear in the urine because it is tightly bound to albumin, which cannot pass through the glomerulus.

Conjugated bilirubin is water-soluble and will therefore appear in the urine. Urobilinogen (a bilirubin breakdown product excreted into the blood; equivalent to stercobilinogen, which is excreted into the stool) will not appear in urine in cholestasis (just as stercobilinogen will not appear in the stool in cholestasis, hence the pale stools finding in obstructive jaundice).

A urinary pregnancy test should always be performed in presentations of abdominal pain in women of childbearing age to exclude ectopic pregnancy.