“Deep” purple urine bag syndrome: physiopathology and clinical implications

Abstract

Urinalysis is a key part of the clinical evaluation of patients with kidney disease. It can provide several useful information for the diagnosis and management of diseases of kidneys and urinary tract. In particular, urine color can be affected by the presence of blood, infection and endogenous metabolites, such as bilirubin, or exogenous, for instance those derived from drugs. Therefore, the analysis of urine color may be helpful in identifying different clinical conditions.

Here we report a case of a patient who presented purple-colored urine, the so-called ” Purple urine bag syndrome”, discussing the predisposing factors and the pathogenesis of this condition. We believe that this information can be useful to clinicians who might face this particular situation.