Haematuria means the appearance of blood in the urine. Haematuria is most commonly present in very small quantities (microscopic haematuria) and is only detected by a simple dipstick test (urine sample). Less often visible blood may appear in the urine as a brown discolouration or red.
Visible haematuria (VH): also called macroscopic haematuria or gross haematuria.
- Non-visible haematuria (NVH): also called microscopic haematuria or dipstick-positive haematuria:
- Symptomatic non-visible haematuria (s-NVH) – associated symptoms include voiding lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS): hesitancy, frequency, urgency, dysuria.
- Asymptomatic non-visible haematuria (a-NVH) – incidental detection in the absence of LUTS or upper urinary tract symptoms.
- Significant haematuria is defined as:
- Any single episode of VH.
- Any single episode of s-NVH (in absence of urinary tract infection (UTI) or other transient causes).
- Persistent a-NVH (in absence of UTI or other transient causes). Persistence is defined as 2 out of 3 dipsticks positive for NVH.