Question: What is the pathophysiology of confusion and raised serum urea in pneumonic patient? What are the causes of Elevated Serum Urea?
Answer: Raised serum urea level is indicative of serious condition in the body. Often it is indicative test performed to know the renal damage.
Causes Of Elevated Urea Levels In Blood
Extra renal causes:
- Increased production of urea due to liver: such as high protein diet, gastrointestinal hemorrhage, starvation, injury, surgery
- Increase in reabsorption of urea as in case of severe diarrhea, cardiac failure, pneumonia etc.
- Drugs causing its increased production like tetracyclines.
- Obstruction of urinary outflow due to any reason.
Renal causes:
- Chronic or acute renal failure.
High Serum Urea Levels Causes
- Pneumonia is a serious illness and especially in elderly the mortality increases. Blood urea is raised in sever infection of pneumonia and thus helps as a marker for the assessment of the disease and its prognosis. If blood urea is high then the prognosis is not fair in person suffering of pneumonia.
- Dehydration, diabetes, hypertension can also give raised urea level, therefore it is contradictory whether to take into consideration in elderly the raised urea level.
- Confusion is also present in unwell elderly patients and therefore it is not taken as a criterion to decide the severity of the illness.