What might you expect to find in the urine of a patient experiencing a hypertensive crisis?

In a patient experiencing a hypertensive crisis, one might expect to find the presence of red blood cells (RBC) and elevated creatinine levels in the urine. This phenomenon can occur due to the damage that severely elevated blood pressure exerts on the renal blood vessels, leading to kidney injury. When the glomeruli, which are the filtering units of the kidneys, become damaged, they may allow red blood cells and proteins to leak into the urine. Elevated creatinine levels can indicate impaired kidney function, as creatinine is a waste product filtered out by the kidneys; when kidney function decreases due to a hypertensive crisis, creatinine levels in the blood rise, and its filtration may be reduced, resulting in the potential for detection in the urine. Both of these findings are significant indicators of renal complications arising from uncontrolled hypertension.