For a study, it was determined that Pneumonia caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) had a significant fatality rate and needs antipseudomonal therapy. The diagnosis of pathogenic PA involvement is difficult due to PA’s ability to colonize the respiratory tract. To estimate the burden of unnecessary antipseudomonal drug prescriptions by determining the prevalence of definitive and indeterminate PA infection in community-acquired pneumonia, describing the clinical and microbiological profiles, and determining the prevalence of definitive and indeterminate PA infection in community-acquired pneumonia. Researchers enrolled 2,701 individuals with community-acquired pneumonia in a prospective study. They divided the patients into three groups based on strict criteria for identifying PA pneumonia: There are three types of pneumonia: definite PA, indeterminate PA, and non-PA pneumonia.
They found Indeterminate PA pneumonia to be 4.9% (n=131), while conclusive PA pneumonia was to be 0.9% (n=25). There were significant clinical disparities across the groups. Patients with decisive PA pneumonia were more likely than non-PA pneumonia patients to have a history of tuberculosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease/bronchiectasis, as well as a higher 30-day mortality rate (28%). Patients with ambiguous PA pneumonia were more likely than those with non-PA pneumonia to have comorbidities. Researchers gave Antipseudomonal drugs to more than half of the patients with ambiguous PA and 25% with non-PA pneumonia. There was no Multidrug resistance in any individuals with final PA pneumonia. The frequency of community-acquired pneumonia caused by PA was low in this cohort. Individuals with indeterminate PA pneumonia had distinct clinical characteristics and 30-day death rates than patients with conclusive PA pneumonia. The majority of antipseudomonal medications recommended for community-acquired pneumonia patients were probably unneeded.
Reference:www.atsjournals.org/doi/full/10.1513/AnnalsATS.201906-459OC
