The association between staphylococcus aureus bacteremia and bacteriuria

The relationship between Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia and bacteriuria was studied over a five year period in three hospitals. In a Veterans Administration Hospital, 59 patients with Staph. aureus bacteremia had a urine culture within 48 hours of a positive blood culture. In 16 of 59 (27 per cent), > 10⁵ Staph. aureus was recovered from the urine in pure culture. Six of these patients had apparent primary staphylococcal urinary tract infection. Clinical and laboratory parameters in the patients with staphylococcal bacteremia and bacteriuria were compared with those in 31 patients with staphylococcal bacteremia and sterile urine cultures. The two groups differed only in the more frequent occurrence of pyuria and proteinurla in the bacteriuric patients. In two other hospitals, staphylococcal bacteriuria occurred in 7 per cent of patients with Staph. aureus bacteremia and in 13 per cent of cases of staphylococcal endocarditis. Review of autopsy records for 33 patients who died within one month of their bacteremia failed to show a correlation between bacteriuria and the presence of renal abscess. Staphylococcal bacteriuria is a frequent and unexplained concomitant of Staph. aureus bacteremia.