
Your heart rate is below 50 or above 100.Your breathing is rapid (30 breaths or more a minute).Your systolic blood pressure is below 90 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) or your diastolic blood pressure is 60 mm Hg or below.You are confused about time, people or places.These include drugs such as aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others) and acetaminophen (Tylenol, others). You may take these as needed for fever and discomfort. If you want to try a cough suppressant, use the lowest dose that helps you rest. In addition, you should know that very few studies have looked at whether over-the-counter cough medicines lessen coughing caused by pneumonia. Because coughing helps loosen and move fluid from your lungs, it's a good idea not to eliminate your cough completely. This medicine may be used to calm your cough so that you can rest. If your symptoms don't improve, your doctor may recommend a different antibiotic. It may take time to identify the type of bacteria causing your pneumonia and to choose the best antibiotic to treat it. These medicines are used to treat bacterial pneumonia. Specific treatments depend on the type and severity of your pneumonia, your age and your overall health. Although most symptoms ease in a few days or weeks, the feeling of tiredness can persist for a month or more. People who have community-acquired pneumonia usually can be treated at home with medication. Treatment for pneumonia involves curing the infection and preventing complications. A fluid sample is taken by putting a needle between your ribs from the pleural area and analyzed to help determine the type of infection. If your pneumonia isn't clearing as quickly as expected, your doctor may recommend a chest CT scan to obtain a more detailed image of your lungs. Your doctor might order additional tests if you're older than age 65, are in the hospital, or have serious symptoms or health conditions. A sample of fluid from your lungs (sputum) is taken after a deep cough and analyzed to help pinpoint the cause of the infection. Pneumonia can prevent your lungs from moving enough oxygen into your bloodstream. This measures the oxygen level in your blood. However, it can't tell your doctor what kind of germ is causing the pneumonia. This helps your doctor diagnose pneumonia and determine the extent and location of the infection. However, precise identification isn't always possible. Blood tests are used to confirm an infection and to try to identify the type of organism causing the infection. Reducing inappropriate antibiotic use in patients with nonpneumonia lower respiratory tract infections by 30% would yield a much larger benefit than reducing antibiotic use in patients with CAP by the same amount. This study is funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and involves data collection in Madison, Wis.
#PNEUMONIA CXR FINDINGS HOW TO#
3 My colleagues and I are in the process of gathering prospective data on 1,400 patients with acute cough, to learn more about how to identify patients with acute cough who are unlikely to benefit from antibiotics. However, a study found that C-reactive protein has independent predictive value for identifying lower respiratory tract infections caused by a bacterial pathogen. In addition, as he notes, data are lacking regarding which patients with radiographic CAP benefit from an antibiotic. To that end, identifying patients who are unlikely to have radiographic CAP may be helpful. However, because approximately 70% of patients with acute cough receive an antibiotic, 1 and only 4% of primary care patients with cough are diagnosed with CAP, 2 the larger task is reducing inappropriate antibiotic use among those without CAP rather than in those with CAP.

He correctly notes that not all patients with radiographic CAP benefit from an antibiotic. Tanael for his thoughtful letter and agree with his comments, with some caveats.
