- Poster presentation
- Open access
- Published:
Delirium could be an indicator of sepsis in patients under 65 years old with urinary tract infections
Critical Care volume 16, Article number: P336 (2012)
Introduction
Delirium, known as sepsis-associated encephalopathy, is a frequent complication of sepsis and may be an independent predictor of mortality of septic patients [1]. A recent study reported delirium could be a predictor or an early marker of sepsis in CABG patients [2]. Urinary tract infection (UTI) often complicates sepsis and delirium; however, relations between delirium and sepsis in UTI patients have not been well investigated. We assessed the relationship between delirium and sepsis in patients with UTI.
Methods
This study was conducted at St Luke's International Hospital in Tokyo, Japan between January 2009 and October 2011. UTI and sepsis were diagnosed based on positive bacterial cultures and clinical symptoms. Delirium was screened with the Delirium Screening Tool (the 11-item questionnaire, sensitivity 98% and specificity 76%) by trained physicians and nurses. Medical records of patients were reviewed to collect information including age, sex and complications. The association between possible risk factors and delirium was analyzed by chi-squared tests and t tests. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software version 15.0J.
Results
Of all 1,727 UTI patients, 905 were men and the mean age was 73.65 ± 14.1. In total, 425 patients (24.6%) became delirious, and 247 patients (14.3%) had sepsis. There was no significant association between sepsis and delirium (P = 0.051). However, in the younger population (age <65) delirium occurred significantly more frequently in septic patients than in nonseptic patients (22.9% vs. 10%, P < 0.001).
Conclusion
Among UTI patients, sepsis may increase the complication of delirium. Especially in patients under 65 years old with UTI, delirium symptoms can be a marker for complication of sepsis. In contrast, delirium of patients aged 65 or over could be associated with not only sepsis but also other factors such as dementia, aging and UTI itself.
References
Ebersoldt M, Sharshar T, Annane D: Sepsis-associated delirium. Intensive Care Med 2007, 33: 941-950. 10.1007/s00134-007-0622-2
Martin BJ, Buth KJ, Arora RC, Baskett RJ: Delirium as a predictor of sepsis in post-coronary artery bypass grafting patients: a retrospective cohort study. Crit Care 2010, 14: R171. 10.1186/cc9273
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
About this article
Cite this article
Yamada, U., Yokota, K., Ohta, D. et al. Delirium could be an indicator of sepsis in patients under 65 years old with urinary tract infections. Crit Care 16 (Suppl 1), P336 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1186/cc10943
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/cc10943