Urinary tract consists of kidney, ureters, bladder, and urethra. Its function is to filter the blood, to eliminate urea, and to help to keep water and electrolytes. Urine is the waste product. Kidney plays a role in the regulation of blood pressure and acid-base balance, regulation and production of erythropoietin, and conservation of the fluids.
Anatomy
Urinary tract begins at the level of the kidneys with the calyces and renal pelvis and continue with the ureters which at the bottom end in the urinary bladder. Ureters are narrow tubes measuring about 30 cm in length. There are recognized two portions, abdominal (retroperitoneal) and pelvis tracts. The abdominal part is on the anterior surface of psoas muscle, the pelvic tract descends posterolaterally, and it approaches the bladder base at the ureteral orifices. When empty, the adult bladder lies behind the symphysis pubis, and it is largely a pelvic organ. When full, the bladder rises above the symphysis and can readily be palpated.
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References and Further Reading
Alonso, A., Ikinger, U., & Kartenbeck, J. (2009). Staining patterns of keratins in the human urinary tract. Histology and Histopathology, 24, 1425–1437.
Amin, M. B., Trpkov, K., Lopez-Beltran, A., et al. (2014). Best practices recommendations in the application of immunohistochemistry in the bladder lesions: Report from the International Society of Urologic Pathology consensus conference. The American Journal of Surgical Pathology, 38, e20–e34.
Amin, M. B., Edge, S., Greene, F., Byrd, D. R., Brookland, R. K., et al. (Eds.). (2017). American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging manual (8th ed.). New York: Springer.
Council, L., & Hameed, O. (2009). Differential expression of immunohistochemical markers in bladder smooth muscle and myofibroblasts, and the potential utility of desmin, smoothelin, and vimentin in staging of bladder carcinoma. Modern Pathology, 22, 639–650.
Philip, A. T., Amin, M. B., Tamboli, P., et al. (2000). Intravesical adipose tissue: A quantitative study and its presence and location with implications for therapies and prognosis. The American Journal of Surgical Pathology, 24, 1268–1290.
Younes, M., Sussman, J., & True, L. D. (1990). The usefulness of the level of the muscularis mucosae in the staging of invasive transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder. Cancer, 66, 543–548.
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Galzerano, A., Lopez-Beltran, A., Raspollini, M.R. (2020). Urinary Tract, Normal Histology. In: van Krieken, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Pathology. Encyclopedia of Pathology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28845-1_4979-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28845-1_4979-1
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