A health care professional may use imaging tests, such as a computed tomography (CT) scan, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or ultrasound, to help diagnose a kidney infection. A technician performs these tests in an outpatient center or a hospital.
The main cause of acute pyelonephritis is gram-negative bacteria, the most common being Escherichia coli. Other gram-negative bacteria which cause acute pyelonephritis include Proteus, Klebsiella, and Enterobacter.
Although pyelonephritis can occur among any group of people, young women are most at risk, particularly between the ages of 15 and 29. This may have to do with the role of frequent sexual intercourse in introducing bacteria to the exterior opening of the urethra and from there to the bladder.
Acute pyelonephritis should be suspected in people with signs or symptoms of a urinary tract infection (for example, dysuria, frequency, urgency) accompanied by any new signs or symptoms of pyelonephritis (including fever, nausea, vomiting, or flank pain).
Most often, the infection is caused by bacteria that normally live in your bowel. The urinary tract has several ways to prevent infection from moving up the urinary tract. For example, urination most often flushes out bacteria before it reaches the bladder.
To diagnose acute pyelonephritis, physicians must rely on evidence of UTI from urinalysis or culture, along with signs and symptoms suggesting upper UTI (fever, chills, flank pain, nausea, vomiting, costovertebral angle tenderness).
Acute pyelonephritis is a sudden and severe kidney infection. It causes the kidneys to swell and may permanently damage them. Pyelonephritis can be life-threatening. When repeated or persistent attacks occur, the condition is called chronic pyelonephritis.
The classic presentation in acute pyelonephritis is the triad of fever, costovertebral angle pain, and nausea and/or vomiting. These may not all be present, however, or they may not occur together temporally. Symptoms may be minimal to severe and usually develop over hours or over the course of a day.
pyelonephritis, infection and inflammation of the kidney tissue and the renal pelvis (the cavity formed by the expansion of the upper end of the ureter, the tube that conveys urine to the bladder). The infection is usually bacterial. The most common type of renal disorder, pyelonephritis may be chronic or acute.