High incidence of silent aspiration in elderly patients with community-acquired pneumonia.
Pneumonia is a major cause of death in the elderly. To investigate the role of silent aspiration in community-acquired pneumonia, we examined the occurrence of silent aspiration during sleep in 14 elderly patients with acute episode of pneumonia and 10 age-matched control subjects by a new technique using indium111 chloride. Scanning of the thorax demonstrated that 71% of patients aspirated, whereas aspiration was observed in only 10% of control subjects. The percentage of positive scans was significantly higher in patients with acute episode of pneumonia than in control subjects (p < 0.02). The results may indicate an important role of silent aspiration in the development of community-acquired pneumonia in the elderly.
NTT Tohoku Hospital, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan.
R
R
Kikuchi
N
N
Watabe
T
T
Konno
N
N
Mishina
K
K
Sekizawa
H
H
Sasaki
D000208:Acute Disease; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007204:Indium; D007205:Indium Radioisotopes; D008168:Lung / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011015:Pneumonia, Aspiration / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D012890:Sleep
D007205:Indium Radioisotopes; D007204:Indium; C020758:indium trichloride