Abstract:

INTRODUCTION: Urinary tract infections (UTI) are common infections in childhood. The course of infection and its clinical follow-up vary according to its localization (lower vs. upper). C-reactive protein (CRP) albumin ratio (CAR) is one of the inflammatory markers that have been used in recent years. The purpose of our study is to investigate this distinction by using CAR. METHODS: This study was conducted by scanning the patient files of 95 children diagnosed with UTI. The patients were divided into two groups according to the infection site as upper UTI (UUTI) and lower UTI (LUTI). Laboratory and demographic features of the patients were obtained from the hospital records and compared between the groups. RESULTS: CAR was significantly greater in the UUTI group (p<0.001). According to receiver operating characteristic curve, the optimal cut-off value of CAR for prediction of UUTI was >12.65, which had a specificity of 97% and sensitivity of 53% (AUC = 0.864; 95% confidence interval CI: 0.792�0.9363, LR: 24.40; p < 0.001). In the multivariate logistic regression analysis, in which variables found to be significant in univariate analysis and correlated with UUTI were also taken, CAR (OR = 0.897, 95% CI: 0.838-0.960, p = 0.002) and absolute neutrophil count (OR = 0.182, 95% CI: 0.039 -0.841, p = 0.029) was still found to be significant. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: CAR is independently related to UUTI in UTI and may be useful to predict UUTI.

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