Urinary Tract Infection in the Adult Female Pathophysiology, Evaluation, and Treatment

摘要

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is a broad category of infection of the lower urinary tract, including bladder (cystitis) or urethra (urethritis), and the upper urinary tract (pyelonephritis). UTIs occur 20 times more frequently in women than in men with approximately 50% to 60% of adult women reporting a UTI at some time during their lives. Hooton et al estimated the incidence of cystitis in young sexually active women in a university student population to be 0.5 to 0.7 episodes/person-year. Although the risk of UTI remains relatively constant through the reproductive years, postmenopausal women are still at risk. The incidence of culture-confirmed acute cystitis in a study of 1071 postmenopausal women followed for 2 years was 0.07 episodes/person-year. Epidemiology data on upper UTI are more limited, but pyelonephritis is estimated to cause approximately 250,000 hospitalizations annually in the United States. The prevalence of pyelonephritis in women age 18 to 49 was 28 cases per 10,000, as estimated in a population-based case-control study.