Abstract
Background & Objective:Urinary dysfunctions occur in the majority of MS patients and these patients are at higher risks of developing UTI due to multiple reasons. We determined to study the association between different urinary symptoms and UTI in MS patients.Material & Method:Eighty seven MS patients that referred to our medical care center with an acute attack of the disease, from November 2012 to April 2014, were included in the study. Patients were classified into two groups based on their urine culture results UTI positive and non-UTI patients. The prevalence of different types of urinary symptoms was then compared among the two groups.Result:The mean age of our patients was 36.8 years old. From the total 87 patients, 83 (95.4%) were female. Overall 56.3% of patients displayed urinary symptoms. The most prevalent urinary problems were urinary incontinence and frequency (25.3% and 24.1%, respectively). A positive urinary culture was seen in 71.3% of the patients. The prevalence of urinary problems was significantly higher in UTI patients in comparison to non-UTI patients (64.5% and 40% in UTI and non-UTI patients, respectively; p=0.036). Separately none of the different urinary symptoms displayed a significant difference between UTI and non-UTI patients (p>0.05).Conclusion:Not a single symptom can be diagnostic of UTI, but MS patient with urinary tract infections do present more urinary symptoms and this can be an indication for further urine analysis and screening measures for MS patients who display more urinary symptoms.
Highlights
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS) that presents with a progressive and varying clinical course (Compston & Coles, 2002; Noseworthy, Lucchinetti, Rodriguez, & Weinshenker, 2000)
Background & Objective: Urinary dysfunctions occur in the majority of MS patients and these patients are at higher risks of developing urinary tract infections (UTI) due to multiple reasons
Not a single symptom can be diagnostic of UTI, but MS patient with urinary tract infections do present more urinary symptoms and this can be an indication for further urine analysis and screening measures for MS patients who display more urinary symptoms
Summary
Frequency, dribbling, dysuria and hesitancy were prevalent in 5.7%, 24.1%, 2.3%, 9.2% and 3.4% of the patients, respectively (Figure 1). Our results did not show a meaningful difference between the UTI and non-UTI patients in the prevalence of urinary incontinence and urinary frequency (p = 0.861 and p = 0.26, respectively). Non-UTI patients did not display signs of urinary retention, urgency, dribbling and hesitancy and these symptoms were only seen in UTI patients, only 1 patients, out of the 25 non-UTI patients, showed signs of dysuria. The prevalence of none of these types of urinary problems was statistically different between UTI and non-UTI patients (p = 0.263, p = 0.144, p = 0.364, p = 0.287 and p = 0.263 for retention, urgency, dribbling, dysuria and hesitancy, respectively) (Table 2)
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