Experimental Pyelonephritis

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Abstract
Ascending infection of the rat kidney was produced by the injection of various amounts of a culture of E. coli up the urethra coupled in some instances with gentle compression of the bladder. Quantitative bacterial and histological studies were made at different time intervals in order to study the evolution of the lesion. Acute inflammation occurred in the pelvis, calyx and peri-hilar cortex in most animals but in some it was restricted to the pelvic and calyceal mucosa. The natural history is towards healing although considerable destruction of renal parenchyma may occur before this is achieved. In the early stages local injury to the kidney in the forniceal region caused an accentuation of the infective process. The main route by which organisms reach the kidney is up the ureters although some degree of infection by the blood stream is conceivable because of the frequency with which bacteremia occurs and the way in which small numbers of organisms can reach a kidney whose ureter has been obstructed. The distribution of infection is different from that in the experimental model where intravenous injection of organisms is coupled with temporary occlusion of the ureter.