by Caleb Sooknanan

Urinary tract infections, also known as UTIs, are a prevalent series of pediatric infections that damage the urinary system. Febrile, or fever-inducing, urinary tract infections are occurring more frequently among patients. Antibiotics have become widespread assets for treating the disease, but they are not effective in all cases. Dong Sup Lee and his team of researchers at the Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine performed a study to determine the correlation between age and gender to E. coli susceptibility and sensitivity for three UTI antibiotics: cefotaxime, cefoxitin, and ciprofloxacin.  Between January 2012 and December 2014, the researchers collected data from 2,262 infected patients and evaluated whether the presence of gram negative bacteria demonstrated any correlation with each patient’s age and gender.

Age was not considered a significant factor in determining the antibiotic resistance from the body’s native bacteria or E. coli because with all three antibiotics, the age distribution of antibiotic resistance cases was similar to the age distribution of gram negative bacteria cases. However, gender showed a greater correlation with the drug activity, with sensitivity to cefotaxime and cefoxitin being higher for infections in females than for infections in males. The study also concluded that while the male participants had lower susceptibility to E. coli infections, the gram-negative bacteria in their infection also demonstrated lower susceptibility to the drugs. Gender was not considered a factor in sensitivity to ciprofloxacin.

Furthermore, the researchers suggest that physicians should determine the appropriate antibiotics for male UTI patients after examining possible responses from bacteria in the body. This could be done by performing urine tests prior to administration. The researchers suggested that clinicians should especially consider this when addressing catheter-induced UTIs, which are more common in male patients.

References:

1. D.S. Lee, et al., Role of age and gender in determining antibiotic resistance in febrile urinary tract infections. International Journal of Infectious Diseases 51, 89-96 (2016). doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2016.08.015
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