Assessing the Utility of Urine Testing in Febrile Infants 2 to 12 Months of Age With Bronchiolitis

Treatment Delay of Febrile Urinary Tract Infections Among Infants With Respiratory Symptoms

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate whether antibiotic treatment of febrile urinary tract infection (UTI) is delayed in febrile infants with respiratory symptoms compared with those without.

STUDY DESIGN

Data of infants 2-24 months of age diagnosed with UTI from March 1, 2012 to May 31, 2023 were collected from our hospital's medical charts and triage records. Patients with known congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract or a history of febrile UTI were excluded. Patients were classified as having respiratory symptoms if they had any of the following symptoms or clinical signs: cough, rhinorrhea, pharyngeal hyperemia and otitis media. Time to first antibiotic treatment from fever onset was compared between patients with and without respiratory symptoms. A Cox regression model was constructed to adjust for potential confounders.

RESULTS

A total of 214 patients were eligible for analysis. The median age of the eligible patients was 5.0 months (interquartile range: 3.0-8.8) and 118 (55%) were male. There were 104 and 110 patients in the respiratory symptom and no respiratory symptom groups, respectively. The time to first antibiotic treatment was significantly longer in the group with respiratory symptoms (51 hours vs. 21 hours). Respiratory symptoms were significantly associated with a longer time to first treatment after adjustment for age and sex in the Cox regression model (hazard ratio = 0.63, 95% confidence interval: 0.47-0.84).

CONCLUSIONS

Treatment of febrile UTI infants with respiratory symptoms tends to be delayed. Pediatricians should not exclude febrile UTI even in the presence of respiratory symptoms.

Urinary Tract Infection in Children With Bronchiolitis: Is It Worth Testing Everyone?

Objective The current study aims to determine the prevalence of urinary tract infection (UTI) and the need to perform urine analysis and cultures in children admitted with bronchiolitis in a large tertiary children's hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Methods We conducted a retrospective chart review of pediatric patients 0-2 years of age who were admitted with bronchiolitis from November 2016 till April 2017. All charts were analyzed to identify the children investigated for UTI, and their results were then reviewed. Results There were 407 children admitted with bronchiolitis during the study period. Two-thirds of them were investigated for UTI. Only 2.6% of the patients tested positive for urine culture, and only 0.96% were found to have a true UTI. Conclusion The prevalence of UTI in children with bronchiolitis is too low to justify routine screening. Therefore, only children with a high risk of having UTI should be investigated.