What is UTI? Its Types and Diagnosis

In this video, SimpliHealth expert Dr. VijayPal Singh, Consultant Urologist at Apollo Clinic, Chandigarh, is talking about Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). 

What Is UTI?

UTI is a very common disease, primarily seen in young females and diabetes. Diabetic patients frequently visit us with a complaint of UTIs. 

• What are UTIs? 
• What symptoms does the body show? 
• Which test holds importance in diagnosis? 
• What are the treatment options available? 

We will cover all these topics in today’s discussion.

Cause Of UTI

What are the most common causes of Urinary Tract Infection?

Many factors contribute to UTIs. 

Frequent in Females 

Young females are the most predominant group which mostly gets affected by UTIs. 

Diabetes patients 

Apart from them, diabetic patients are more prone to Urinary tract infections.

Anatomical abnormalities 

Then there are certain groups of people with specific anatomical abnormalities like a blockage in the passage of urine so they are more at risk of having Urinary Tract infections.

Why does UTI occur? 

Usually, Urinary Tract Infection occurs when urine stays in the bladder for a longer duration. Urinary stasis occurs and the urine is unable to move forward due to stress. Pooling of urine in the bladder causes infection. 

Risk factors 

The risk factor or condition in which UTI is more prone to occur in females, diabetes, presence of kidney stone, bladder stone, ureteric stone, or any stone disease may serve as a nidus for bacterial infection. 

In addition, specific congenital abnormalities might lead to urinary tract infections like VUR (Vesicoureteral reflux) or Posterior urethral valve in males. So they are at higher risk of having UTIs.

Types of UTI 

We can divide Urinary Tract Infections into uncomplicated Urinary Tract infections and complicated Urinary Tract Infections. 

Uncomplicated UTI 

Young females generally have uncomplicated Urinary Tract Infections. They are not associated with complex risk factors like comorbid conditions, diabetes, or anatomical defects. They don’t have any stone diseases. 

Symptoms 

Their symptoms are also mild. Patients usually suffer from burning micturition, storage symptoms, frequent urination at small intervals, and urgency symptoms, like patients who feel that they need to use the loo or washroom at a particular moment. So we club all these factors into uncomplicated UTIs. 

Usually, these patients don’t show any signs of fever, and there is less chance of kidney infection. Within 3-5 days, they get settled by taking the antibiotic course. There is another sub-group which we call complicated UTI.

Complicated UTI 

In this condition, certain underlying defects or any comorbid condition like diabetes or UTI progress early in such patients; fever may commence early; bladder infection (cystitis) may spread to the kidney resulting in pyelonephritis. 

It might result in kidney infections. Patients with a stone problem or elderly, immunocompromised patients like cancer patients, HIV, or other related diseases whose immune system is low then these patients usually suffer from complicated UTIs. 

Men also sometimes come in the sub-category of complex patients. Uncomplicated UTIs are rare in men. Typically there are some underlying causes of Urinary tract infection in men like enlargement of the prostate or any stricture diseases or stone disease. So these causes lead to Urinary Tract Infections. 

Symptoms 

So the symptoms of these patients, as I told you before, are burning micturition, frequent urination, frequent will to go to the bathroom, and urgency. Apart from that, some may suffer from Spurapubic pain and blood in the urine. And if there are complications, this may result in pyelonephritis that may accompany flank pain. 

Diagnosis of UTI 

Urine examination 

So next is the evaluation of Urinary Tract Infection and documentation of UTI in patients. So the most basic and preliminary test is a complete urinary examination, a microscopic examination in which we see the presence of pus cells or blood in the urine, pH of the urine, and presence of any crystals that further signify the presence of stone diseases. 

Urine culture 

Next is a urinary culture which is mandatory. We do urine culture for mainly two reasons: one is for documentation that this organism is growing and causing UTI, and with the culture, we do antibiotic sensitivity test, which guides us on which antibiotic we must give to patients. 

X-Ray KUB, and CT KUB

If we suspect any underlying anatomical defects or the presence of stone, we do imaging techniques like ultrasound, X-Ray KUB, and CT KUB. These are some of the additional tests that help in the evaluation of Urinary Tract Infection.