[Pneumonia in the aged patient: is the clinical presentation atypical?].
OBJECTIVE
Some new studies have questioned the often atypical character of pneumonia in aged patients. Therefore to study the different clinical presentation of this pathology is our aim.


METHODS
Retrospective analysis of 179 cases of pneumonia in patients aged older than 65 years who were admitted in our hospital during 1992.


RESULTS
The average age of the patients was 78 years, being 65.9% of them men. 91% presented pneumonias acquired in the community. 73.1% showed a typical dominant clinical presentation (febrile-respiratory); respiratory (47.4%), febrile (25.7%). The rest presented atypical patterns; mental-neurologic or "cerebral dysfunction" (10.6%), perambulation-general state (6.15%) and digestive-abdominal (9.5%). The respiratory pattern was associated to the presence of respiratory antecedents (p < 0.001); the febrile pattern to the absence of cardiovascular antecedents (p < 0.05); the mental-neurologic to the presence of neurologic antecedents (p < 0.001) and the alteration of perambulation-general state to an evolution of more than 7 days (p < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
The greatest number of our pneumonia patients older than 65 years follows a typical clinical pattern febrile-respiratory). The patient's prior pathology conditions the clinical presentation.
González Quijada
S
S
Sección de Medicina Interna, Hospital General Yagüe, 8 Planta, 09005 Burgos.
Galdós Barroso
M
M
Riego Valledor
A
A
Fernández Alvarez
G
G
Galindo Vicente
M C
MC
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017714:Community-Acquired Infections / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012189:Retrospective Studies