Urinary Tract Infections in Diabetes Mellitus Patients:Clinical Characteristics and Prevention

OBJECTIVE To investigate the c li nical characteristics and prevention of asymptomatic urinary tract infections in diabetes mellitus patients. METHODS An analysis of clinical features of 100 hospitalized cases from 1999 to Oct 2004 was performed on asymptomatic ur inary tract infections between 75 cases with diabetes and 25 cases without it. RESULTS The asymptomatic urinary tract in fections rate in diabetes group was sharply higher than that of the non-diabete s one(about 3 times) and the rate was growing along with the development of age,especially with diabetes mellitus,there was a remarkable difference between the two groups(P0.001).the rate of the female patients was h igher than that of the male ones(the rates were 80% and 20%,respectively).A mong old patients with diabetes mellitus,the rate in female patients was the hi ghest up to 53%.The results of bacterial examination in both groups indicated t hat the main pathogens were Gram negative organisms(the rates were 72% and 64%,respectively).The fungal infection rate in diabetes group(11%) was higher t han non-diabetes one(4%). CONCLUSIONS The asymptomatic urinary tra ct infections rate in diabetes is high,especially among adult females,the rate growing along with the development of age.The key to reduce the damage to the k idney with diabetes is to look for effective measures and prevent occurrence of the asymptomatic urinary tract infections at the basis of controlling blood gluc ose.