Urinary Tract Infections Flashcards
Normal Commensals of Urinary Tract
Urinary tract in a healthy man is sterile, except its distal portion of urethra:
1. Lactobacilli
2. Diphtheroids
3. Coagulase-negative staphylococci
4. Anaerobes
5. Potential pathogens like Enterobacteriaceae &Candidaspecies.
Invasion of some of these pathogens (e.g. E. coli) into bladder can result in UTI.
Predisposing factors for UTI
- Gender
- Age
- 🤰
- Structural and functional abnormality
- Bacterial virulence
- Vesicoureteral reflux
- Genetic factors
UTI and 🤰
Anatomical and hormonal changes in 🤰 favor the development of UTIs.
Most females develop asymptomatic bacteriuria during pregnancy.
In some cases, it can lead to serious infections in both mother and fetus
Ascending route of UTI
It is the most common route; the enteric endogenous bacteria (E. coli, other gram-negative bacilli and enterococci) enter the urinary tract which is facilitated by sexual inter-course, or instrumentation (e.g. catheterization), etc.
Steps in ascending route of UTI
1. Colonisation: Most imp Virulence factors (e.g. P fimbriae, mannose resistant fimbriae in E. coli) help in adhesion to urethral epithelium 2. Ascension: Cystitis (sometimes peristalsis 🅱️) 3. Further ascension: Vesicoureteral reflux ➡️ pyelonephritis 4. Acute tubular injury
Descending route of UTI
• Invasion of renal parenchyma through hematogenous seedling of the pathogen, following bacteremia. • These pathogens are invasive • Associated with pyelonephritis eg., S. aureus, Salmonella, M. tuberculosis, and Leptospira
Host defense to UTI
1. Urinary factors
- Acidic pH
- High urine osmolality
- Urinary inhibition of bacterial adherence
- Mechanical flushing by urine flow
Host defense to UTI
2. Mucosal immunity
- Uroepithelial secretion of cytokines (induced by 🦠 LPS)
- IgA prevents attachment of pathogen
- Tamm-Horsfall protein (uromodulin):
glycoprotein secreted by epithelial cells of kidney, serves as anti-adherence factor by binding to type-I fimbriae of E. coli - In men, Zn in prostatic secretion is bactericidal & long urethra
UTI
classification of clinical manifestations
1. Lower UTI: • asymptomatic bacteriuria • cystitis • urethritis • acute urethral syndrome 2. Upper UTI: • pyelonephritis • ureteritis • perinephric abscess • renal abscess • renal TB 3. Immunological sequela: PSGN
Significance of asymptomatic bacteriuria
- 🤰 (as chances of complication in mother and fetus are more)
- People undergoing prostatic surgery or any urologic procedure where bleeding is anticipated.
For them routine screening and treatment for asymptomatic UTI is recommended
Not in other scenarios
Cystitis (Infection of Bladder)
Characterized by localized symptoms such as:
1. Dysuria, frequency, urgency, & suprapubic tenderness
2. Urine becomes cloudy, with bad odor, and in some cases grossly bloody
3. There is no associated systemic manifestation.
Acute Urethral Syndrome
This is another form of lower UTI seen in young sexually active females, characterized by:
1. Presence of classical symptoms of lower UTI as described for cystitis
2. Bacterial count is often low (100 to 10^5 CFU/mL)
3. Pyuria is present
Agents:
Mostly due to the usual agents of UTI, a few cases may be caused by gonococcus, Chlamydia, herpes simplex virus, etc.
Upper UTI (Pyelonephritis)
Pyelonephritis refers to inflammation of kidney parenchyma, calyces and the renal pelvis
Associated with systemic manifestations such as 🤒 , flank pain, 🤮
Lower tract symptoms such as frequency, urgency and dysuria may also be present
Specimen collection for UTI
Urine should be collected in a wide mouth screw capped sterile container by various methods:
1. Clean voided midstream urine: M/C
Collected after properly cleaning the urethral meatus or glans
2. Suprapubic aspiration of urine: ideal for patients in coma or infants
3. In catheterized patients:
collected from the catheter tube (after clamping distally and disinfecting) but not from the uro bag
Transport of urine sample
Urine sample should be processed immediately.
If delay is expected for more than 1–2 hours:
1. stored in refrigerator
2. stored by adding boric acid for maximum 24 hours.
Screening tests for UTI
- Wet mount examination: for pus cells
• >8 pus cells/mm3 ➡️ significant
2. Leukocyte esterase test:
• rapid and cheaper
• detects leukocyte esterases secreted by pus cells in urine - Nitrate reduction test (Griess test): Nitrate reducing bacteria like E. coli ➡️ ➕ result
Gram staining of urine is not a reliable indicator of UTI because
- Bacterial count in urine is usually low
- Pus cells rapidly deteriorate in urine and may not be seen well.
Gram staining may be limited to pyelonephritis and invasive UTI cases and a count of ≥1 bacteria/oil immersion field is taken as significant
Culture media for UTI
Urine sample should be inoculated onto CLED agar (cysteine lactose electrolyte deficient agar) or combination of MacConkey agar and blood agar.
CLED agar is preferred in laboratories with higher sample load
Kass concept of significant bacteriuria
This is based on the fact that, though the normal urine is sterile it may get contaminated during voiding, with normal urethral flora.
However, the bacterial count in contaminated urine would be lower than that caused by an infection
Low counts of bacteria in urine (<10,000) can be significant in the following conditions
- Patient on antibiotic or on diuretic treatment
- Infection with some gram-positive organisms such as S. aureus
- Pyelonephritis and acute urethral syndrome
- Sample taken by suprapubic aspiration
- In catheterized patients:
If the patient is symptomatic, then a count of ≥10^3 CFU/mL is considered significant
Quantitative culture of urine specimens
This is done to count the number of colonies. Each colony on plate corresponds to one bacterium in urine sample.
Quantitation is done by:
1. Semi-quantitative method such as standardized loop technique
2. Quantitative method such as pour plate method
Antibody Coated Bacteria Test for UTI
This test is done to differentiate upper and lower UTI.
1. In upper UTI (hematogenous), 🦠 coated with specific Ab are found in
urine, detected by immunofluorescence method using fluorescent labeled antihuman globulin
2. In lower UTI, 🦠 found in urine are never coated with specific antibodies.
Virulence factors of UPEC
- Cytotoxins (CNF 1 cytotoxic necrotizing factor 1 and SAT Secretory autotransporter toxin)
- Hemolysins
- Fimbriae (e.g. P fimbriae)–specific for strains causing lower UTI
- Capsular K antigen–specific for strains causing upper UTI
Bacterial infections of UTI
- Enterobacteriaceae
- Non-fermenters: Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter
- Enterococcus
- Staph aureus, saprophyticus, Streptococcus agalactiae
- Renal tuberculosis
- PSGN
- Perinephric and renal abscesses
Enterobacteriaceae causing UTI
- E. coli
- Klebsiella pneumoniae
- Enterobacter
- Citrobacter
- Proteeae tribe:
• Proteus, Morganella and Providencia
• positive for phenylalanine deaminase
(PPA) test
Proteus antigens
- H (flagellar) antigen:
flagellated strains of Proteus grows on agar as a thin film - O (sOmatic) antigen:
The thin film is not observed when strains carrying only the somatic antigen (non-flagellated strains) grow on media