Acute Pyelonephritis: A Single-center Experience

Acute pyelonephritis (APN), although a common clinical entity, still not much is known about the clinical profile in the Indian scenario. We prospectively collected clinical, biochemical, and radiological data of patients hospitalized with a diagnosis of APN from March 2014 to June 2016. A total of 296 cases were included in the study. Mean age was 53.85 ± 9.78 years. Male to females ratio was 1.93:1. Among the risk factors recognized for complicated pyelonephritis (PN), diabetes mellitus (DM) (54.4%) was the most common factor followed by renal calculi (14.4%), benign prostatic hyperplasia (6.7%), immunocompromised state (3.3%), stricture urethra and meatal stenosis (3.3%), and neurogenic bladder (2%). Urinary culture was negative in 153 (51.7%) and positive in 143 patient (48.3%). Most common organism isolated was Escherichia coli (29.7%), followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae (5.4%), pseudomonas (5.4%), Enterococcus (4.4%), and Proteus in 10 (3.4%). Serum creatinine of more than 1.5 mg/dl at admission was seen in 96.3% patients; 40% of them had underlying chronic kidney disease with DM being the most common. Multiorgan dysfunction either at admission or during the course in hospital stay was seen in 31.8% patients. Twelve (2%) had emphysematous PN. Six patients had Class II, 4 had Class III, 1 with Class I, and another with Class IV. A total of 18 deaths were noted (6.1%). Hemoglobin <10 g/dl, serum creatinine at admission >1.5 mg/dl, HbA1c% >10%, and immunosuppression had statistically significant association with the development of multiorgan dysfunction on univariate analysis, but on multivariate analysis, only hemoglobin, HbA1c%, and immunosuppression reached statistical significance. Even with attributable risk of mortality, only hemoglobin, HbA1c%, and immunosuppression reached statistical significance on multivariate analysis. HbA1c% adds to the predictive parameters to recognize at-risk patients to intensify the treatment and avoid complications.