Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Strada Provinciale per Casamassima km.3, 70010, Valenzano, Italy.
Unit of Research Methodology and Data Sciences for Population Health, "Salus in Apulia Study" National Institute of Gastroenterology "S. de Bellis" Research Hospital, Bari, Italy.
Vet Res Commun. 2022 Dec;46(4):1075-1084. doi: 10.1007/s11259-022-09973-w. Epub 2022 Jul 14.
Urinary tract infections are defined as the adherence, multiplication, and persistence of an infectious agent within the urogenital system, causing an associated inflammatory response and clinical signs; instead, the presence of bacteria in urine as determined by positive bacterial culture (PUC) from a properly collected urine specimen, in the absence of clinical signs, is defined subclinical bacteriuria. Limited information on the prevalence of PUC in spinal cord injury cats affected by neurogenic bladder (NB) is available. On contrary, in NB dogs and humans the prevalence of bacteriuria is well documented. Moreover, while in humans information about bacteriemia associated with NB is already available, this aspect has never been studied in NB cats. The aim of this prospective study was to determine the prevalence of PUC in cats with NB, compared to animals affected by chronic kidney disease (CKD) and healthy cats. Furthermore, the prevalence of bacteriemia in cats with NB was evaluated. Fifty-one cats met the inclusion criteria: 12 cats were affected by NB, 22 had CKD and 17 were healthy. The prevalence of PUC was 58.33% and 18% in NB and CKD cat populations, respectively. All blood cultures were negative. The incomplete bladder emptying and the decreased resistance in the bladder wall could be considered predisposing elements to PUC in the NB feline population. The results of this study highlight, for the first time, an high prevalence of PUC in cats affected by NB, which was not found to be associated with bacteriemia.
尿路感染被定义为感染病原体在泌尿生殖系统中的黏附、繁殖和持续存在，导致相关炎症反应和临床症状；相反，在没有临床症状的情况下，通过适当收集的尿液样本中阳性细菌培养（PUC）确定的细菌存在被定义为亚临床菌尿症。关于神经源性膀胱炎（NB）猫中 PUC 的流行情况的信息有限。相比之下，NB 犬和人类的菌尿症患病率已有充分记录。此外，尽管关于与 NB 相关的菌血症的信息在人类中已经可用，但这一方面从未在 NB 猫中进行过研究。本前瞻性研究的目的是确定 NB 猫中 PUC 的患病率，并与患有慢性肾脏病（CKD）和健康猫的动物进行比较。此外，还评估了 NB 猫中菌血症的患病率。51 只猫符合纳入标准：12 只猫患有 NB，22 只患有 CKD，17 只健康。NB 和 CKD 猫群中 PUC 的患病率分别为 58.33%和 18%。所有血液培养均为阴性。不完全排空膀胱和膀胱壁阻力降低可能被认为是 NB 猫群中 PUC 的易患因素。本研究结果首次强调了 NB 猫中 PUC 的高患病率，并且与菌血症无关。
