Pneumonia in immunocompromised patients: updates in clinical and imaging features

Abstract

Pulmonary infection is a major cause of mortality in immunocompromised patients. Immunosuppression can be divided into neutropenia, humoral immunodeficiency, and cellular immunodeficiency. Pulmonary infection in these patients typically depends on the type, duration, and degree of immunodeficiency. Pulmonary infection in immunocompromised patients is often nonspecific, both clinically and radiologically, but a certain type of pulmonary infection may provide typical radiological features helpful for definitive diagnosis. Therefore, it is essential to incorporate clinical information into radiological features to narrow down the differential diagnosis and to potentially reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with pulmonary infections in immunocompromised patients.

Keywords

• Chest radiography
• Computed tomography
• Immunocompromised host
• Pneumonia