Current Issues in Pharmacy and Medical Sciences (Sep 2021)

Clinical and laboratory findings in elderly with Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Babol, northern Iran – 2017-2019

  • Habibi Saleh,
  • Babazadeh Arefeh,
  • Ebrahimpour Soheil,
  • Sabbagh Parisa,
  • Shokri Mehran

DOI
https://doi.org/10.2478/cipms-2021-0027
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 34, no. 3
pp. 130 – 133

Abstract

Read online

Morbidity and mortality are higher in older adults with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) than in other age groups. Also, CAP in older adults has various clinical manifestations with other. A higher mortality rate in the elderly with CAP may contribute to a delay in management. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical and laboratory manifestations of CAP in the elderly. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 221 elderly patients with CAP who were admitted to Ayatollah Rouhani Hospital, in Babol, northern of Iran, in 2017-2019. Patient outcomes included 170 cases that recovered from CAP, and 51 cases that died of complications. Patients were evaluated in terms of their clinical and laboratory manifestations. The most common symptoms of pneumonia were cough (79.6%), sputum (73.8%), weakness (72.9%), fever (56%), dyspnea (46.2%). The most frequent underlying disease was ischemic heart disease (43.9%). In our study, clinical and laboratory characteristics in older patients with CAP were evaluated and compared with other studies confirming past findings, but there were differences in some cases, such as vital signs, gastrointestinal symptoms, and disturbance of the level of consciousness. Therefore, it recommends carefully taking the patients’ initial histories and accurately recording their clinical and laboratory symptoms.

Keywords