Keywords
Renal scar
Permanent renal injury
Arterial hypertension
Chronic renal failure.
Proteinuria
How to Cite
Abstract
Background: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the main infectious diseases in the pediatric population. Therefore, it is necessary for general practitioners and pediatricians to make an accurate and timely diagnosis and treatment to avoid early complications, such as acute renal parenchymal infection or acute pyelonephritis (APN), renal abscess, or late complications such as renal scarring. The latter may be associated, in the long term, with high blood pressure, preeclampsia/eclampsia, proteinuria, and chronic kidney disease.
Objective: To help explain how these factors influence the development of renal scarring and to promote the care that physicians should take in managing UTIs, with the aim of reducing or preventing the presence and action of these factors.
Methodology: This document reviews the conclusions of several studies on the main risk factors involved in the development of renal scarring secondary to acute pyelonephritis in children.
Results: Information from studies on UTIs and renal scarring, organized into subtopics of risk factors such as leukocytosis, C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT), sex, age, temperature, delay in starting antibiotic treatment, genetics, microorganism virulence factors, host defense factors, recurrent urinary tract infection (rUTI), and vesicoureteral reflux (VUR).
Conclusions: Based on the information obtained, the risk factors most strongly associated with the development of post-PNA renal scarring in children are recurrent urinary tract infections and vesicoureteral reflux.
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