Urinalysis: Sediment examination, currently, a liquid kidney biopsy?

The current article aims to assist in understanding the importance of urinalysis, more specifically, urinary sediment examination, in the diagnosis and monitoring of kidney injuries, its particularities and, especially, its most relevant characteristics: sample which is easy to obtain, low execution cost and diagnostic utility.In view of the panorama of the increase in kidney diseases in recent decades, the application of this analytical tool has been of paramount importance, which, when performed well, both in laboratory and clinic, can bring great benefits to patients who use it, being these people in a risk group for chronic kidney diseases or not.The databases used for search were-PubMed, Scielo and Web of Science.