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Glite Dictionary
urinary indican

urinary indican

9.9
A chemical made in the liver that appears in urine and helps doctors check how well you digest food
  • noun
  • /ˈjʊrɪˌnɛri ˈɪndɪkən/
  • Specialized
translation icon : indican urinario
  • High concentrations of urinary indican can indicate problems with protein digestion or intestinal flora.

Examples

  • Doctors often test for urinary indican in patients with liver disease.

  • The laboratory test revealed the presence of urinary indican in the sample.

  • Doctors measured the level of urinary indican to help diagnose the patient's condition.

  • The presence of urinary indican can indicate liver dysfunction.

  • Doctors measured the level of urinary indican to help diagnose the patient's condition.

  • High concentrations of urinary indican can indicate problems with protein digestion or intestinal flora.

  • The presence of urinary indican can indicate liver dysfunction.

Synonyms

metabolic indican
vsurinary indican
  • Specialized
9.9

A chemical made in the liver that appears in urine and can show protein digestion problems

serves as an indicator in clinical urine tests to detect conditions

Surface Forms

urinary indican singular
urinary indicans plural

Morphology

urinary + indican

This is a straightforward adjective + noun composition: 'urinary' (related to urine) modifies 'indican', so the meaning 'indican that is present in or excreted in urine' is directly derivable from the parts. In practice the term is highly technical and unknown to most B1 learners, but if they did know the constituents the meaning is compositional and predictable.

Etymology

Urinary indican gets its name from the words urinary meaning in the urine and indican from the word 'indigo' because the chemical can turn blue like indigo when it changes in air or in a test. So doctors used it as an 'indicator' in urine, and today the name means the urine chemical doctors measure to help show problems with digestion or gut bacteria.