Bacterial urinary tract infection and subclinical bacteriuria in dogs receiving antineoplastic chemotherapy

Harrer, Julia; Fejös, Csilla; Zablotski, Yury; Hirschberger, Johannes; Wolf, Georg; Rieger, Alexandra; Mayer, Christian; Dorsch, Roswitha (2022): Bacterial urinary tract infection and subclinical bacteriuria in dogs receiving antineoplastic chemotherapy. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine. pp. 1-11. ISSN 0891-6640

Abstract

Background: Immunosuppressive treatment with glucocorticoids and cyclosporine increases the risk for positive urine cultures (PUCs) in dogs.
Objective: To investigate the prevalence and incidence of PUC in dogs diagnosed with cancer and treated with antineoplastic chemotherapy while distinguishing between subclinical bacteriuria (SB) and urinary tract infection (UTI).
Animals: Forty-six client-owned dogs with nonurogenital cancer treated with anti- neoplastic chemotherapy.
Methods: Prospective observational longitudinal clinical study. Dogs in which a urine culture was performed before the start of and at least once during antineoplastic chemotherapy were included. A McNemar's test was used to investigate if the preva- lence of PUC increased during antineoplastic chemotherapy. Positive urine cultures were categorized into SB and UTI and multiple PUCs from the same dog and cate- gory were grouped together as 1 episode of PUC.
Results: Urine culture was positive in 21/185 urine samples in 8/46 dogs. Antineo- plastic chemotherapy did not influence the prevalence of PUC (P = 1.00), which was 11% (5/46 dogs; 95% confidence interval: 5-23%) before the start of and 13% (6/46 dogs; 95% confidence interval: 6-26%) during antineoplastic chemotherapy. Eight dogs had 10 episodes of PUC; 7/10 episodes were classified as SB, and in 3/10 epi- sodes UTI (chronic prostatitis, prostatic abscess, and emphysematous cystitis) was diagnosed. Escherichia coli was the most common pathogen, isolated in 9/10 episodes.
Conclusions and Clinical Importance: We did not find evidence that antineoplastic chemotherapy is a major predisposing factor for the development of PUC. Most dogs with PUC had SB.

• Doc-Type: Article (LMU)
• Organisational unit (Faculties): 08 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Veterinary Medicine > Lehrstuhl für Bakteriologie und Mykologie; 08 Veterinary Medicine > Centre for Clinical Veterinary Medicine > Institut für Tierpathologie
• DFG subject classification of scientific disciplines: Life sciences
• DFG: Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) - 491502892