March 14, 2007
Aches and Pains, Other
Question from Huntsville, Alabama, USA:
My almost 15-year-old son was diagnosed with type 1 at the age of eight. Recently, he had a large amount of blood in his urine with pain in the bladder area. The laboratory results at the pediatrician’s office showed too many red blood cells to count and rare bacteria. They are treating it as a bladder infection with antibiotics. We recheck today. Are type 1 diabetics more prone to bladder infections, even in young men? And, will tighter control, i.e., an A1c better than 8.0, help prevent this from happening? Lastly, if they are more prone,”why?”
Answer:
You must rule out kidney stones. Bladder/kidney and other genitourinary tract infections must also be ruled out or treated with antibiotics with appropriate pre-treatment culture and sensitivities and then follow-up culture and sensitivities to make sure the correct antibiotic was used, taken and worked, etc. The worse the glucose control, the more likely any type of infection, but these are actually quite rare in males.
SB
