Aetiological agent in community acquired pneumonia in patients requiring hospitalization

Abstract

This study was carried out to determine the etiological agents in patients withcommunity-acquired pneumonia (CAP). Ninety-three patients with radiologicallyconfirmed pneumonia admitted to the Medical City, Baghdad Teaching Hospitalthrough the period extended from October 2001 till March 2002. Also to investigate apossible correlation between etiological agents in patients with CAP and comorbidfactors including age. The etiological agents were identified from 50 (53.8%) patientswith CAP, while no agents were detected in 43 (46.2%) patients. Blood samples weretaken from all patients for identification of Chlamydia pneumoniae and Mycoplasmapneumoniae infection. Sputum samples for culture were taken from 76 (81.7%)patients; bacterial species were isolated from 22 (23.7%) samples. Streptococcuspneumoniae was the most frequent typical bacterial pathogen isolated from 17 (18.3%)patients. Atypical pathogens (C. pneumoniae and M. pneumoniae) using ELISAtechnique were identified in 22 (23.6%) and 20 (21.5%) respectively. Atypical pathogenswere a most common causes of CAP identified from (39.8%) cases. Sixteen (17.2%) ofthe patients had mixed infections (two pathogens were identified in 12 (75%) and threepathogens in 4 (25%) patients). C. pneumoniae and S. pneumoniae were the mostcommon mixed organisms found in 6 (37.5%) of patients.