title: Aetiology of community-acquired pneumonia in hospital treated patients.
abstract: From May 1982 a prospective 1-year study of adult patients with community-acquired, radiologically verified, hospital treated pneumonia was performed at the Department of Infectious Diseases, Orebro Medical Center Hospital, Orebro, Sweden. The study included 147 patients with a median age of 71 years. Special efforts to diagnose a pneumococcal aetiology were accomplished by antigen detection of the pneumococcal C-polysaccharide (PnC) in sputum and saliva samples and by serological methods for determination of antibody titres against PnC. A pneumococcal aetiology was established in 46.9% of the patients, including 8.1% with double infections. Altogether Haemophilus influenzae A virus were noted in 9.5%, respectively, Mycoplasma pneumoniae in 5.4%, legionnaires' disease in 2.7% and Branhamella catarrhalis in 2.0%, whereas enteric gram-negative bacilli as aetiological organisms were not found in any patient. These findings imply that penicillin should still be the first drug of choice in hospitalized adult patients with community-acquired pneumonia in Sweden.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D000939:Epitopes / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011018:Pneumonia, Pneumococcal / Q000209:etiology* / Q000276:immunology; D011135:Polysaccharides, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013183:Sputum / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D000939:Epitopes; D011135:Polysaccharides, Bacterial; C027158:polysaccharide C-substance (Streptococcus)