November 07, 2019
The human body is capable of all sorts of incredible and surprising feats, including producing lilac colored urine. Most recently this phenomenon has been documented in a female patient admitted to a French hospital.
The rare condition, known as ‘purple urinary bag syndrome’ or PUBS, is an uncommon side effect of having a urinary catheter placed for an extended period of time. The violet liquid in the French patients’ catheter bag prompted her doctors to test for the presence of bacteria. Lab results indicated that the Klebsiella pneumoniae was present in the urine, a bacterium that is found in the human gut.
The purple urine is the side effect of the bacteria mixing with a chemical called ‘indoxyl sulfate’, which is produced when the body breaks down amino acid tryptophan. In the catheter bag the bacteria break the indoxyl sulfate into two new chemicals, one of which is blue, and the other is red which combine to create the purple pigment. Thankfully the condition is temporary and the woman’s urinary output returned to normal following intravenous hydration.
Source: Live Science
Read more: http://ow.ly/TOPj50wZM5d
