Clinical, Bacteriological And Radiological Profile Of Patients With Community Acquired Pneumonia In A Tertiary Care Hospital In South India

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Pneumonia is one of the most common infections encountered in the clinical practice. Despite being the cause of significant mortality and morbidity, pneumonia is often misdiagnosed and mistreated. Pneumonia is defined as inflammation and consolidation of lung tissue due to an infectious agent. Pneumonia that develops outside the hospital is considered community acquired pneumonia (CAP).
OBJECTIVE: To study the clinical, radiological, and bacteriological profile of patients with community- acquired pneumonia To evaluate CURB- 65 scoring system in community acquired pneumonia in tertiary care hospital.
MATERIAL AND METHOD: This study was done in DEPARTMENT OF RESPIRATORY MEDICINE, TAGORE MEDICAL COLLEGE AND HOSPITAL, CHENNAI, TAMILNADU. The period of data collection was from January 2023 to December 2023. Eighty one patients were included in the study. A detailed history and examination, chest x-ray, routine laboratory investigation and sputum culture was done for all the patients diagnosed with community acquired pneumonia. CURB65 scoring system were applied to all the patients included in this study to assess the severity and prognosis.
RESULTS: In the study it was observed that most of the patients were among 56 to 65 years of age group. The disease occurrence was more common in males. In the present study all the patients were symptomatic. The most common presenting symptom was cough and fever, followed by breathlessness(40. 7%), chest pain (22.2%) and confusion ( 3.7 %). Fever was equally distributed among both the age group. But cough and breathlessness was more among the older age group. The most common risk factor was smoking (43.2%) and alcohol intake (40 .7 %). The co-morbidities diabetes ( 29. 6%) and COPD (24.7 %) were seen predominantly in these patients. Streptococcus pneumonia( 38. 3%) was the most common etiological agent identified through sputum culture followed by gram negative organism (klebsiella and pseudomonas). Radiologically, the lower lobe was more commonly involved followed by middle lobe. There was no correlation between the causative agent and radiological appearance. The rate of ICU admission was 14%. Two patients in our study had died. CURB 65 was applied to all the patients and CURB 65 proved to be a good prognostic indicator for assessing the severity of community acquired pneumonia.