Introduction: Acute Pyelonephritis (APN) is a common infection in community. Diabetes Mellitus (DM) may have different effect on clinical characteristics and outcomes of APN compared to non-diabetic individuals.
Aim: To compare clinical characteristics and assess outcomes of APN patients with and without DM.
Materials and methods: A retrospective analysis of 122 patients with DM (n=61) and without DM (n=61) was conducted at a single, private, urban set-up from Gujarat, India. Clinical symptoms, laboratory investigations, antibiotics treatment and outcomes in terms of mortality and prolonged hospitalization (10 days and above) were compared in two groups.
Results: Mean age was significantly higher in diabetics than non-diabetics (55.2±12.5 vs 41.5±17.3, p<0.0001) and females were proportionally higher in both groups (65.6% Vs 62.3%, p=0.706). Fever was most frequent symptom (83.6% Vs 90.2%, p=0.283) followed by nausea/vomiting (50.8% Vs 63.9%, p=0.143), dysuria (66.7% Vs 74.4%, p=0.433) and flank pain (8.2 Vs 13.1, p=0.379). Backache/back pain (47.5% Vs 29.5%, p=0.041) and Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) (63.9% Vs 45.9%, p=0.045) were significantly higher in diabetics than non-diabetics. Mean hospital stay did not vary significantly in two groups (7.0±3.2 Vs 6.50±2.9, p=0.346) but proportion of patients with longer hospital stay was higher in DM (16.4% Vs 8.2%). Elevated white cell count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein, serum creatinine and presence of red cell in urine (> 5/ high power field [hpf]) did not vary significantly in two groups. Cephalosporin-beta-lactamase inhibitor (Cefaperazone-Sulbactam/Cefepime-Tazobactam) was the most prescribed antibiotic in both the groups. No deaths were observed in any group during this evaluation period. Only raised ESR (>30 mm/hr) {Odds Ratio (OR): 1.58, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 1.36-1.82, p=0.004} and presence of CKD (OR: 1.71, 95% CI 1.30-2.25, p=0.008) were found to be the significant predictors of prolonged hospitalization in overall population.
Conclusion: APN in diabetic and non-diabetic patients has similar clinical characteristics. Impact of diabetes on clinical outcomes of mortality and prolonged hospitalization warrants further investigation in a large, randomized, prospective trial.
Keywords: Chronic kidney disease; Prolonged hospitalization; Risk predictors.