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Community-acquired pneumonia

Prevalence
Causes
Clinical features
Differential Diagnosis
Investigations
Therapy
Prevention
Prognosis
Clinical features

Look for  
  • a cough a
  • fever a
  • respiratory rate >30 per minute a
  • tachycardia a

Why?

No cough and normal vital signs make pneumonia less likely

Patient Target Disorder and
Reference Standard
Diagnostic Test LR+
(95% CI)
Post-test Probability LR-
(95% CI)
Post-test Probability
suspected pneumonia
a (pre-test probability: 5%)
pneumonia
(chest X-ray)
cough 1.8
9% 0.31
2%
    fever 2.1
(1.4 to 2.9)
10% 0.59
3%
    respiratory rate >30/minute 2.6
12% 0.80
4%
    any of respiratory rate >30, heart rate >100, temperature >37.8 C 1.2
6% 0.18
(0.07 to 0.46)
0.9%

 

Expiry date: July 2003
Levels of Evidence used in grading these guides

Author   CM   Ball
Reviewer   M   Kamei
CAT Writers   C   Ball , CJ   Wotton , B   Phillips