Abstract
Pneumonia may be defined as an infectious process involving the lungs. It may be acute, subacute, or chronic, and it may be due to a wide variety of infectious agents including bacteria, viruses, and fungi, with bacterial pneumonias the lungs are the primary site of organ involvement, but with viral and atypical bacterial pathogens extrapulmonary manifestations are common. Tuberculosis and fungal disease may be limited to the lung or, if the infection is disseminated, result in extrapulmonary manifestations involving multiple organs. The clinical problem is to differentiate the treatable pneumonias from untreatable infectious processes and noninfectious conditions mimicking pneumonia. Because the bacterial and atypical pneumonias are the most common and readily treatable with antimicrobial therapy, the diagnostic approach is directed at ruling out or identifying specific bacterial pathogens.
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Keywords
- Pleural Effusion
- Pneumocystis Carinii Pneumonia
- Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome
- Bacterial Pneumonia
- Pulmonary Infiltrate
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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© 1993 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.
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Cunha, B.A. (1993). Historical, Physical, and Laboratory Clues to the Diagnosis of Pneumonia. In: The Pneumonias. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9766-3_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9766-3_5
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