Characteristics of old patients with community-acquired pneumonia in Wuhan

Objective To know the characteristics of old patients with community-acquired pneumonia(CAP)in Wuhan and to improve the level of diagnosis and treatment.Methods A study was performed on 260 old patients with CAP treated in the department from October 2006 to May 2008.The aspects including the age distribution,symptoms,underlaying diseases and laboratory examination were analyzed.All the patients were from Wuhan and beyond 60 years old.Results The old patients with CAP in Wuhan were usually combined with such underlaying diseases as COPD,hypertensive disease and others,and the major pathogen was gram-negative bacilli,especially Klebsiella pneumoniae.It should be mentioned that this report was not completely consistent with foreign reports.The infection induced by atypical pathogen was increasing.Conclusion The pathogen should be found to treat old patients with CAP by combined and sufficient antibiotics according to the drug-sensitivity test.