Medical Image of the Month: Cavitating Pseudomonas aeruginosa Pneumonia

Abstract

No abstract available. Article truncated after 150 words. A 56-year-old woman presented with cough and shortness of breath to hospital. She had a temperature of 39.2°C and had recently completed course of steroids and antibiotics for exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). She was an active smoker of 15 cigarettes/day for about 40 years. No other past medical history was noted. On examination she had left-sided crepitations and oxygen saturations of 90% on room air. Chest x-ray (CXR) (Fig 1:A) showed features of background emphysema with upper lobe peripheral bullae, larger on the left. Dense left peri-hilar consolidation was also described. SARS-CoV-2 swab was negative. White blood cells (WBC) were raised at 16.9x109/L and C-reactive protein (CRP) at 331 mg/L. The rest of the blood tests were unremarkable. CURB-65 score was zero but treatment was commenced with intravenous (IV) amoxicillin & oral clarithromycin in view of level of CRP and CXR findings. On Day 4 of admission …

Keywords

• pneumonia
• community acquired pneumonia
• cap
• hospital acquired
• hap
• chest x-ray
• cavitating
• ct scan
• copd
• c-reactive protein