Community-acquired pneumonia in primary care: clinical assessment and the usability of chest radiography.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the diagnostic value of different clinical and laboratory findings in pneumonia and to explore the association between the doctor's degree of suspicion and chest X-ray (CXR) result and to evaluate whether or not CXR should be used routinely in primary care, when available. DESIGN: A three-year prospective study was conducted between September 2011 and December 2014. SETTING: Two primary care settings in Linköping, Sweden. SUBJECTS: A total of 103 adult patients with suspected pneumonia in primary care. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The physicians recorded results of a standardized medical physical examination, including laboratory results, and rated their suspicion into three degrees. The outcome of the diagnostic variables and the degree of suspicion was compared with the result of CXR. RESULTS: Radiographic pneumonia was reported in 45% of patients. When the physicians were sure of the diagnosis radiographic pneumonia was found in 88% of cases (p < 0.001), when quite sure the frequency of positive CXR was 45%, and when not sure 28%. Elevated levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) ≥ 50mg/L were associated with the presence of radiographic pneumonia when the diagnosis was suspected (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: This study indicates that CXR can be useful if the physician is not sure of the diagnosis, but when sure one can rely on one's judgement without ordering CXR. KEY POINTS: There are different guidelines but no consensus on how to manage community-acquired pneumonia in primary care. When the physician is sure of the diagnosis the judgement is reliable without chest X-ray and antibiotics can be safely prescribed. Chest X-ray can be useful in the assessment of pneumonia in primary care, when the physician is not sure of the diagnosis.

Doppler myocardial imaging in the assessment of regional myocardial function in longitudinal direction pre- and post-PTCA.

AIMS: Doppler myocardial imaging is potentially a sensitive tool to assess regional myocardial velocities pre- and post-percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) as a marker of contractility to evaluate short- to medium-term information on functional myocardial recovery following the release of ischaemia. METHODS: Thirty patients with single vessel disease were studied to assess regional myocardial peak systolic velocity, systolic velocity time integral and mitral valve plane excursion in longitudinal direction one day pre-, one day post- and 3 months post-PTCA. The patients were assigned to group A with coronary stenoses >70% and group B with stenoses < 70%. RESULTS: In group A pre-PTCA the ischaemic segments showed a significantly lower peak systolic velocity and velocity time integral compared with the values one day after PTCA (5.8 +/- 1.4 vs 7.7 +/- 1.4cm.s(-1); 1.06 +/- 0.22 vs 1.23 +/-0.28cm;P< 0.03). In contrast, mitral valve plane excursion in this group remained unchanged after PTCA for both the ischaemic and non-ischaemic left ventricular wall. In group B no changes of these parameters and no differences in mitral valve plane excursion of the ischaemic and the non-ischaemic left ventricular wall could be seen. CONCLUSION: With Doppler myocardial imaging it was possible to quantify a number of indices which changed due to the successful release of ischaemia.