ObjectiveTo investigate the role of dynamic monitoring procalcitonin (PCT) in the comprehensive evaluation during the diagnosis and treatment of community acquired pneumonia (CAP). MethodsFour hundred and sixty-eight patients with CAP were randomly assigned to a PCT-guided group (the research group) and a standard guideline group (the control group). The clinical symptoms,CURB-65 grade,blood leucocyte count and classification,and C-reactive protein (CRP)were compared between two groups. The PCT-guided application time of antibiotics,the hospitalization time,chest CT examination rate,the cure or the improvement rate were also estimated and commpared. ResultsThe hospitalization time [(9.6±1.7)days vs. (10.9±1.6)days],hospitalization cost [(6 957.11±1 009.46) yuan vs. (8 011.35±1 049.77) yuan],chest CT examination rate (56.96% vs. 89.40%),the application time of antibiotics [(16.5±2.3)days vs. (20.0±1.2)days],and the rate of required antibiotics upgrade (6.96% vs. 11.06%) in the research group were all significantly lower than the control group (P<0.05). There was no significant difference between two groups in the ratio of the adverse reaction of antibiotics (14.78% vs. 15.20%),the rate of transfer into ICU (2.61% vs. 3.69%) or the mortality (1.74% vs. 2.30%)(P>0.05). ConclusionOn the basis of CAP guidelines,the dynamic monitoring of PCT may shorten the time of antibiotic use and the hospitalization,reduce the cost of hospitalization and the rate of chest CT scan in patients with CAP.
ObjectiveTo analyze the clinical features of Legionella-associated cavitary pneumonia, and to explore the diagnosis, treatment planning, and clinical management of patients.MethodsThe data of a patient with severe Legionella-associated cavitary pneumonia were collected and analyzed. Databases including PubMed, Ovid, Wanfang, VIP and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure were searched for pertinent literatures, using the keyword "Legionella, lung abscess or cavitary pneumonia" in Chinese and English from Jan. 1990 to Jun. 2019. The related literature was reviewed.ResultsA 60-year-old male patient was admitted to hospital because of fever, cough, and expectoration for five days. On presentation, his temperature was 38.3 °C, and pulmonary auscultation revealed rales on the left side of the lungs. Culture of lower airway secretions obtained by bronchoscopy revealed Legionella pneumophila infection, and serotype 6. Chest computerized tomography showed a consolidation in the left lung and an abscess in the left upper lobe. The patient was discharged from the hospital after three months of anti-Legionella treatment (Mosfloxacin, Azithromycin, etc.). Fifteen manuscripts, including 18 cases, were retrieved from databases. With the addition of our case, a total of 19 cases were analyzed in detail. There were 15 males and four females, aged from 4 months to 73 years old. Most of them (14/19, 73.7%) were accompanied by multiple underlying diseases. Initial empiric antimicrobial therapy failed in 15 (78.9%) cases, and 7 (36.8%) patients required combination therapy. The courses of antimicrobial treatment were from 3 to 49 weeks. All except one patient were fully recovered and discharged from hospital.ConclusionsLegionella pneumonia with pulmonary abscess or cavity is rare and often presents with fever. Pulmonary imaging shows infiltration in the initial, but can be free of cavities or abscesses. Most patients have basic diseases. Severe patients often need to be treated in combination with antibiotics for long periods of time.
社区获得性肺炎( CAP) 是严重威胁人类健康的常见疾病之一, 但在其诊断和治疗仍存在相当大的差异。临床路径( clinical pathway, CP) 是一种新的临床诊疗规范管理方式,近年来开始应用于CAP 的临床诊治, 陆续有协会组织开始制定关于CAP 的临床路径, 并应用于临床。
ObjectiveTo explore the independent factors related to clinical severe events in community acquired pneumonia patients and to find out a simple, effective and more accurate prediction method.MethodsConsecutive patients admitted to our hospital from August 2018 to July 2019 were enrolled in this retrospective study. The endpoint was the occurrence of severe events defined as a condition as follows intensive care unit admission, the need for mechanical ventilation or vasoactive drugs, or 30-day mortality during hospitalization. The patients were divided into severe event group and non-severe event group, and general clinical data were compared between two groups. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the independent predictors of adverse outcomes. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was constructed to calculate and compare the area under curve (AUC) of different prediction methods.ResultsA total of 410 patients were enrolled, 96 (23.4%) of whom experienced clinical severe events. Age (OR: 1.035, 95%CI: 1.012 - 1.059, P=0.003), high-density lipoprotein (OR: 0.266, 95%CI: 0.088 - 0.802, P=0.019) and lactate dehydrogenase (OR: 1.006, 95%CI: 1.004 - 1.059, P<0.001) levels on admission were independent factors associated with clinical severe events in CAP patients. The AUCs in the prediction of clinical severe events were 0.744 (95%CI: 0.699 - 0.785, P=0.028) and 0.814 (95%CI: 0.772 - 0.850, P=0.025) for CURB65 and PSI respectively. CURB65-LH, combining CURB65, HDL and LDH simultaneously, had the largest AUC of 0.843 (95%CI: 0.804 - 0.876, P=0.022) among these prediction methods and its sensitivity (69.8%) and specificity (81.5%) were higher than that of CURB65 (61.5% and 76.1%) respectively.ConclusionCURB65-LH is a simple, effective and more accurate prediction method of clinical severe events in CAP patients, which not only has higher sensitivity and specificity, but also significantly improves the predictive value when compared with CURB65.
Objective To detect the levels and study the significance of serum soluble intercellular adhension molecule-1(sVCAM-1),soluble vascular cell adhension molecule-1 (sVCAM-1) in patients with community-acquired pneumonia(CAP).Methods sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 were detected by enzymelinked immunosorbent assy（ELISA）in 25 patients with CAP before and after treatment as well as in 10 healthy controls.Results Before treatment, the levels of serum sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 in the patients with CAP[（2.658 4±0.259 7）ng/mL,(2.680 9±0.255 4）ng/mL)] were significantly higher than those in controls[(2.472 8±0.077 6)ng/mL,（2.426 3±0.307 2)ng/mL](Plt;0.01,Plt;0.05). After treatment, the levels of serum sICAM-1, sVCAM-1 significantly decreased [(2.518 3±0.205 2)ng/mL,(2.523 0±0.279 4)ng/mL](Plt;0.01,Plt;0.01) and were not different from those in controls（Pgt;0.05）.The levels of sICAM-1 were positively associated with neutrophil counts（r=0.602，Plt;0.001）rather than the levels of sVCAM-1（r＝0.036，Pgt;0.05）.Conclusion The changes of sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 before and after treatment are predictive to the prognosis in patients with CAP.
Objective To evaluate and select essential medicine for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) using evidence-based methods based on the burden of disease. Methods By means of the approaches, criteria, and workflow set up in the second article of this series, we referred to the recommendations of evidence-based or authority guidelines from inside and outside China, collected relevant evidence from domestic clinical studies, and recommended essential medicine based on evidence-based evaluation. Data were analyzed by Review Manager (RevMan) 5.1 and GRADE profiler 3.6 to evaluate quality of evidence. Results (1) Eleven guidelines were included (nine foreign guidelines, two domestic guidelines; nine based on evidence, two based on expert consensus). For CAP, amoxicillin amp; clavulanate potassium had efficiencies of 77.1% and an incidence of 18.8% as to adverse reaction that mainly included gastrointestinal reaction, skin rashes, etc. Piperacillin/tazobactam had an efficiency of 92.1% and a bacterial clearance rate of 88.9%. Cefuroxime had an efficiency of 89% and a bacterial clearance rate of 85.5%. There was no statistical significance between azithromycin and cefuroxime for CAP (RR=0.98, 95%CI 0.9 to 1.06); however, azithromycin was superior to cefuroxime in shortening fever-relief time (MD=–0.98, 95%CI –1.24 to –0.55) and cough-relief time (MD=–1.36, 95%CI –1.94 to –0.78). Efficiencies of ceftriaxone, cefotaxime, moxifloxacin and lavofloxacin were all more than 80% and among the three, moxifloxacin was the most efficient (RR=1.08, 95%CI 1.02 to 1.13, P=0.004). Meropenem had an efficiency of 90%, a bacterial clearance rate of 83.3% and an incidence of 3.33% as to adverse reaction that mainly included diarrhea. Conclusion (1) We offer a b recommendation for antibiotics such as amoxicillin, amoxicillin amp; clavulanate potassium, ampicillin/sulbactam, piperacillin/tazobactam, doxycycline, azithromycin, clarithromycin, cefuroxim, ceftriaxone, cefotaxime, lavofloxacin, moxifloxacin, ertapenem, meropenem, imipenem and vancocin. (2) We offer a weak recommendation for penicillin G, ciprofloxacin and erythromycin. (3) We propose that doctor should choose optimal antibiotics based on commonly-seen pathogenic bacteria that cause CAP, local criteria of antibiotic susceptibility, severity of CAP, and risk factors of patients.
ObjiectiveTo obtain reliable evidence of diagnosis and treatment through evaluating the validity of pneumonia severity index (PSI), CURB-65 and acute physiology and chronic health evaluationⅡ(APACHEⅡ) scores in predicting risk stratification, severity evaluation and prognosis in elderly community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) patients.MethodsClinical and demographic data were collected and retrospectively analyzed in 125 in-hospital patients with CAP admitted in Shanghai Dahua Hospital from January 2012 to April 2015. The severity of pneumonia was calculated with PSI, CURB-65 and APACHEⅡgroups during 1 to 3 days after admission. Mortality and intensive care unit (ICU) admission rates were evaluated among patients in each scores and was categorized into three classes, namely mild, moderate and severe groups during 1 to 3 days after admission. Mortality and ICU admission rates were evaluated among patients in each severity level. Through evaluating the sensitivity, specificity, the predicting values and the area under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) among PSI, CURB-65 and APACHEⅡ, the validity and consistency of these three scoring systems were assessed.ResultsUsing PSI, CURB-65 and APACHEⅡ scoring systems, the patients were categorized into mild severity (48.8%, 64.0% and 52.8%, respectively), moderate severity (37.6%, 23.2% and 32.0%, respectively) and severe severity (13.6%, 12.8% and 15.2%, respectively). In PSI, CURB-65 and APACHEⅡ systems, the mortality in high risk groups was 41.3%, 62.5% and 47.4%, respectively; The ICU-admission rate in high risk groups was 88.3%, 100.0% and 94.7%, respectively. The sensitivity of PSI, CURB-65 and APACHEⅡ was 50.0%, 71.4% and 64.3% in predicting mortality, and was 46.8%, 50.0% and 59.3% in predicting ICU-admission, respectively. PSI, CURB-65 and APACHEⅡ showed similar specificity (approximately 90%) in predicting mortality and ICU admission. ROC was conducted to evaluate the sensitivity of PSI, APACHEⅡ and CURB-65 in predicting mortality and ICU admission. The AUC had no significant difference among these three scoring systems. The AUC of PSI, CURB-65 and APACHEⅡwas 0.893, 0.871, 0.880, respectively for predicting mortality, and was 0.949, 0.837, 0.949, respectively for predicting ICU admission. There was no significant difference among these three scoring in predicting mortality and ICU admission (all P>0.05).ConclusionsPSI, CURB-65 and APACHEⅡ performed similarly and achieved high predictive values in elderly patients with CAP. The three scoring systems are consistent in predicting mortality risk in elderly CAP patients. The CURB-65 is more sensitive in predicting the risk of death, and more early in identifing patients with high risk of death. The APACHEⅡ is more sensitive in predicting the risk of ICU admission, and has good value in identifying severe patients and choosing the right treatment sites.
Objective To investigate the therapeutic effect of dexamethasone on children with severe community acquired pneumonia ( CAP) . Methods 120 children with severe CAP admitted from January 2009 to June 2011 were recruited in the study. The patients were randomly divided into a dexamethasone group ( n = 62) and a control group ( n = 58) . The patients in the dexamethasone group received additional dexamethasone intravenous injection for 3 days ( 0. 2-0. 4 mg· kg- 1 · d- 1 , qd) on the basic treatment of the control group. Length of hospital stay, serum C reactive protein ( CRP) concentration on 4th day after admission, overall efficacy, mortality, incidence of adverse events during treatment were compared between the two groups. Results Median length hospital stay was 8 days in the dexamethasone group compared with 9 days in the control group without significant difference ( P gt;0. 05) . The serumCRP concentration on 4th day was lower in the dexamethasone group than that in the control group [ ( 23. 4 ±5. 6) mmol /L vs. ( 41. 3 ±6. 2) mmol /L, P lt;0. 05] . The overall efficacy was higher in the dexamethasone group than that in the control group ( 88. 7% vs. 74. 1% , P lt; 0. 05) . The in-hospital mortality and incidence of severe adverse events were not significantly different between the two groups ( P gt; 0. 05) . Conclusions Dexamethasone treatment is associated with a significant attenuation in systematic inflammatory response, but does not decrease mortality in hospitalized children with severe CAP.