The Differences between Cystitis and Pyelonephritis

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The Differences between Cystitis and Pyelonephritis
A pyelonephritis is an infection affecting the kidney while cystitis is an inflammatory infection affecting the bladder area. Both conditions present with bloody urine and painful urination but with pyelonephritis one experiences more pain in the back region. According to Ratner & Perilli (2003), the general signs and symptoms of cystitis are enuresis, hematuria, dysuria, suprapubic pain, frequency, urgency, and malodorous urine. On the other hand, pyelonephritis is a diffuse pyogenic infection of the kidney parenchyma and pelvis occurring with an abrupt onset. The clinical signs and symptoms of pyelonephritis are chills, fever, and significant flank pain and tenderness, making the infected to feel sick (Hashim, Reynard, Cowan, Wood, & Armenakas, 2013.
Regardless of age, bladder infection or cystitis is not associated with fever and does not cause long-term damage to the kidney or bladder. However pyelonephritis represents with high fever and produces scarring or permanent damage to the kidney even after one infection (Hashim, Reynard, Cowan, Wood, & Armenakas, 2013). Cystitis is caused by bacterial infection which is regularly part of the broad-spectrum urinary tract infection. In many instances, pyelonephritis has no apparent precipitating cause but in the chronic stage bacterial infections in the kidney causes it if it lasts a long time.
In cystitis, women are more susceptible than men due to their shorter female urethra with the causative organism in women being Escherichia coli, inhabited in the intestines where it is spread from rectum to urethra. Both conditions are more common in women than in males due to the biological structure of the female urethra, and more during pregnancy, post-menopause, and sexual activity (Gerfen & Frick, 2012). They have similar risk factors like pregnancy, sexual intercourse, spermicides, men with prostate enlargement, urinary catheters, elderly persons and other prevailing medical conditions. The symptoms of the two conditions are differentiated where cystitis symptoms are fever, pain or burning while micturating, increased urgency and frequency of urination. Pyelonephritis symptoms are vaguer and are not often related to urine but manifest as vomiting, nausea, shivering and high grade fever.

References
Gerfen, A. & Frick, L. (2012). Acute Uncomplicated Cystitis and Pyelonephritis in Women. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 8(6), 484-485. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2012.03.001
Hashim, H., Reynard, J., Cowan, N., Wood, D., & Armenakas, N. (2013). Urological Emergencies in Clinical Practice. Dordrecht: Springer.
Ratner, V., & Perilli, L. (2003). Interstitial cystitis: an updated overview. Urologic nursing, 23(2), 107.