Características de la neumonía adquirida en la comunidad por neumococo y micoplasma

Characteristics of community-acquired pneumonia due to neumococcus and mycoplasma Patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) meeting the criteria for hospitaliza- tion and with a definitive etiological diagnosis were prospectively studied. The objective was to determine their clinical, radiological, biochemical and evolutionary characteristics and to assess whether there are differences between pneumonia caused by pneumococ- cus and mycoplasma. During an observation period of 24 months, 49 CAP cases caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae isolated from blood cultures and 22 CAP cases caused by Mycoplasma pneumoniae diagnosed by PCR testing of oropharyngeal swabs were included. The age of patients, presence of comorbidities, clinical picture, laboratory and radiological variables, clinical evolution and degree of severity were evaluated. The mean age of the group was 57 years old with a high percentage of comorbidities and a high Pneumonia Severity Index. Patients with Mycoplasma showed a non significant tendency of being older and having a greater number of comorbidities. In the cases with Streptococcus pneumoniae, a greater percentage of hypotension, severe hypoalbumine- mia, compromise of more than one lobe, liver abnormalities and hospitalization in the ICU were observed. The only significant difference was the development of renal failure in patients with Pneumococcus. In the studied population there were no variables which could have a predictive value of the causative agent.