Bladder damp-heat is the pattern name for the classical picture of painful urinary difficulty - the strangury group - in which dampness and heat are described as pouring down into the bladder and obstructing the passage of urine.
The recorded features are: passing urine often, urgently and in small amounts; a burning or scalding sensation on passing it; urine that is dark, scanty, cloudy or foul-smelling; sometimes blood in the urine, or gravel and stones; a sense of distension, fullness or pain in the lower abdomen; fever, with or without chills; thirst; a yellow, greasy tongue coating and a rapid, slippery pulse. The classical texts divide the picture by what is seen in the urine - the heat, blood, stone and cloudy forms.
What shares it: bacterial infection of the lower urinary tract and of the kidney; stones in the urinary tract; urethritis from chlamydia, gonorrhoea or another sexually transmitted infection; prostatitis; interstitial cystitis; and chemical or irritant causes. In women, burning on passing urine is common in infection but is not specific to it.
Where this library stops describing: fever with flank pain, shaking chills or vomiting suggests the infection has reached the kidney and needs assessment the same day; pregnancy changes the calculation - any urinary infection in pregnancy is followed up, including one that causes no symptoms at all; urinary infection in a man or in a child is uncommon enough to be investigated rather than explained; being unable to pass urine with a painful, distended lower abdomen is an emergency; visible blood in the urine is assessed even after the burning stops, because cancer of the bladder and of the upper urinary tract presents that way; and in diabetes, immune suppression or old age, infection may be present without any burning.
Drinking more fluid has not been shown to clear an infection that is already established. Whether the approaches described as clearing heat and draining damp change any of these outcomes is not established.
膀胱湿热是古典术语，用于淋证那一类表现：湿与热被描述为下注膀胱，使小便的通路受阻。
记载中的表现包括：尿频、尿急、尿量少；排尿时有灼热或涩痛感；小便黄赤、短少、浑浊或有气味；有时尿血，或有砂石；小腹胀满或疼痛；发热，或伴恶寒；口渴；舌苔黄腻，脉滑数。古典文献按尿中所见分为热淋、血淋、石淋、膏淋数种。
共享这一组表现的有：下尿路与肾脏的细菌感染；尿路结石；衣原体、淋球菌或其他性传播感染引起的尿道炎；前列腺炎；间质性膀胱炎；以及化学性或刺激性原因。女性排尿灼痛在感染中常见，但并非感染所独有。
本库停止描述的地方：发热伴腰痛、寒战或呕吐，提示感染已累及肾脏，当天就要评估；妊娠会改变判断——妊娠期任何尿路感染都要随访，包括完全没有症状的那种；男性与儿童的尿路感染少见，应当查明原因而不是解释；尿不出来伴下腹胀痛属急症；肉眼血尿即便灼痛已止也要评估，因为膀胱癌与上尿路肿瘤就以此起病；糖尿病、免疫抑制与高龄者，感染可以不出现灼痛。
多饮水是否被证实能清除已经发生的感染，答案是没有被证实。所谓清热利湿之法是否改变上述任一种结局，同样未被证实。
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