Chest
Clinical Investigations: InfectionC-Reactive Protein in Simple Community-Acquired Pneumonia
Section snippets
Patients and Methods
A retrospective study was performed using 40 random cases of simple community-acquired pneumonia in patients admitted to the respiratory unit. The cases were identified by a third party on the basis of the diagnosis on the discharge letter. The necessary information regarding physical signs, temperature, and investigations were extracted from the case notes. The presence of localizing chest signs (crackles or pleural rub) and new consolidation on the chest radiograph were required for
Results
Data are provided in the text in the following order: mean ± SEM, range, and lower/upper quartiles. The pneumonia group tended to be of a younger mean age than the COPD group, although this was not significant (p=0.19): pneumonia 64 ± 3 yr, 19–22, 53/76; purulent bronchitis 69 ± 2 yr, 50–85, 62/76 (95% CI for difference −3, 14 yr).
All cases of pneumonia clinically responded to antibiotic treatment and there were no fatalities. There was a considerable degree of overlap in both temperature and
Discussion
The results of the present study showed that CRP levels were considerably higher in patients with community-acquired pneumonia compared with those who had purulent bronchitis without pneumonia. If an arbitrary cut-off value of 100 mg/L is used, then in all but two cases (5%) of pneumonia, it is possible to separate patients with parenchymal lung sepsis from those with endobronchial infection. These findings are similar to previous data from Morley and Kushner4 who reported significantly higher
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Cited by (98)
Urine Dipstick of Sputum for the Rapid Diagnosis of Community Acquired Pneumonia
2018, Journal of the National Medical AssociationCitation Excerpt :However, the clinical picture may not be clear in the case of accompanying lung diseases or when the consolidation is not seen radiologically in the early stages and there are no other signs of infection, such as fever or leucocytosis. In the presence of such atypical clinical and radiological findings, it is difficult to diagnose pneumonia.9 For this reason, rapid diagnostic methods that can support clinical and radiological findings are being studied.
A novel biochemical marker for community-acquired pneumonia: Ischemia-modified albumin
2017, American Journal of Emergency MedicineThe role of biomarkers in low respiratory tract infections
2012, European Journal of Internal MedicineCitation Excerpt :Literature data on PCT-guided antibiotic therapy for E-COPD have recently been reviewed by Tokman et al. [45]. In 1995, Smith RP et al. firstly suggested the use of CRP levels monitoring as a marker of treatment response in a small cohort of in-hospital CAP patients [46]. Similarly, a prospective hospital-based study further confirmed that, unlike tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-6, persistently high or rising levels of CRP were suggestive of treatment failure in 28 patients with suspected CAP [47].
This paper has been presented in abstract form as a spoken communication to the British Thoracic Society, Dublin, July 1993.