Proteinuria: Causes (Nursing)

00:00 Now what are some other things you want to consider If you see protein in a urine? Well, if people have blood diseases that cause red blood cells to be ripped up.

00:10 It might just be that your body has so much protein running around in it, It doesn't know what to do with it because red blood cells have the hemoglobin, remember that? So hemoglobin is the one that carries oxygen.

00:23 That's a protein.

00:25 So if you have something going on in your body that is just ripping up and destroying your red blood cells you're going to have excess amounts of protein available in your body and the body's got to shove it somewhere so it can shove it into your urine.

00:41 Also can be an indication of inflammation.

00:44 Inflammation is a good thing for healing but when it gets out of control, we have all kinds of Havoc wreaked in the body.

00:52 Did, you know we even look at inflammation in gums to predict heart disease.

00:57 Yeah. It's true so inflammation balance bueno, inflammation out of control, no bueno.

01:05 And you might see protein in the patient's urine.

01:08 Now cancer can also cause proteinuria and that's a very complex diagnosis.

01:14 What if your patient has some injury to the urinary tract? Maybe could have bladder or prostate problems or something to their urethra, that can also cause protein to leak in your urine.

01:25 Now the last one is Preeclampsia.

01:29 Okay stay with me, because I know we've got like five different things all the way across the board.

01:35 But see that's the cool part about nursing because we know that patients are not lab values, right? We know that that number means nothing unless you have a human thinking through all the possible other puzzle pieces.

01:50 So when I have somebody that comes back with protein in their urine, I'm going to be running through these five things.

01:57 Now here's a big clue with preeclampsia, if they're not pregnant they're not preeclamptic.

02:01 Okay, so that's something that comes just with pregnancy.

02:05 So write that in your note, pregnancy.

02:08 Fairly certain you're familiar with inflammation, with cancer, or injury to urinary tract that makes sense.

02:13 But if you're not a woman's health fan, let me walk you through it a little bit.

02:17 Preeclampsia pre means before eclampsia means seizures.

02:23 Okay, so women who are pregnant have a risk of this thing preeclampsia.

02:28 They're at risk for seizures.

02:31 We used to think how you save these women was to deliver the baby.

02:34 Now, we know that this can develop up to six weeks after they deliver the baby.

02:40 What are the warning signs? Elevated blood pressure for them, protein in their urine is also another warning sign.

02:49 So if I have someone who's preeclamptic and they have protein in their urine tells me things are progressing and I'm going to keep a really close eye on them.

02:58 So with your notes and preeclampsia I want to write pregnancy.

03:02 The risk is preeclampsia can evolve into seizures and caused the death of the mother.

03:08 So it's a very serious condition keep an eye on it.

03:12 So let's look back at these five.

03:14 I've got extra protein might be because of destroyed red blood cells.

03:18 I might have it because inflammation, we know that cancer goes after cells and makes him crazy, if I have some right direct hits to the to the delivery models for urine that can be a problem and preeclampsia.