A brief history of urine examination - From ancient uroscopy to 21st century urinomics

Abstract

The art of uroscopy (Greek ouron-urine and skopeo-examination), the visual inspection of urine, is as old as the history of mankind. It had seen its ups and downs, was praised and derided, but was ultimately perfected to become a complex visual and tasting examination tool. As centuries passed, it was replaced by urinalysis which was first based on iatrochemical principles and then followed by transmutation into modern biochemical analyses. Recent rapid development of sophisticated ‘omics’ technologies opened new avenues for the exploration of this important body fluid. This brief overview will take a journey through this fascinating history and will give a glimpse of what is to come in the future.