Md. Masum1, Rajee Mahmud Talukder2, S.I. Maksud3, Enamul Haque4, Jubaida Khanam5, Sharif Hossain6,
S.M.Talukder7
Background: Rheumatoid arthritis is one of the common rheumatologic diseases in our country. Susceptibility of infection is one of the complications of rheumatoid arthritis. Co-morbidity form rheumatoid arthritis has recently focused on outcomes of cardiovascular and pulmonary disease, but serious infections are increasingly well recognized complication of rheumatoid arthritis. Urinary tract infection is one them but little attention has been paid to frequency of urinary tract infection in rheumatoid arthritis. Persons with rheumatoid arthritis visit twice as often from urinary tract infection than person without. A cross sectional study was designed to carry out in medicine inpatient department and rheumatology clinic of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital to quantify the frequency and pattern of urinary tract infection in rheumatoid arthritis patients. Aim of the study: The aim of this study was to assess the frequency and identification of bacteria causes urinary tract infection in rheumatoid arthritis patients. Methods: This study was cross sectional in nature. The study was conducted in Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital and the data were collected from the medicine inpatient department and rheumatology clinic. The study period was from March 2016 to September 2016. 60 selected patients, age between 25 and 75 years with diagnosed and newly diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis patients admitted in six medicine units and rheumatology clinic of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, were included in this study and evaluated. Different types of infection are noted but here I try to diagnose urinary tract infection. The diagnosis was made on the basis of history, physical examination and laboratory investigations. The patients were managed according to standard clinical protocols. Written informed consent was taken from patients or their relatives. All data were collected in an individual case record form. Data were analyzed using the SPSS version 16.0 and presented as mean and percentage as applicable. Result: According to the results among the patients 86.6% (52) got normal result while 13.3% (8) have got positive result in urine R/M/E (table 3). Among the positive patients 7 have clinical symptoms and only one has no symptoms. Among the urine R/M/E positive cases 12.5% (1) male and 87.5% (7) female. 8 patients whose urine R/M/E is positive, culture is sent. Among the positive cultures 83.3% (5) E. coli and M16.7 % (1) pseudomonas. This table illustrates that 7 patients have symptoms and expected positive results in Urine R/M/E test but 1 patient got positive result while she didn’t have symptoms. Conclusion: This study shows urinary tract infection was present in a significant proportion of rheumatoid arthritis patients. Female were mostly affected among them. E.coli was the most culprit organism.
Key words: Rheumatoid arthritis, Autoimmune disease, Urinary tract infection, DMARDs