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.
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