Comorbidities impact on the prognosis of severe acute community-acquired pneumonia

Ana Vidal; Lurdes Santos

doi:10.1016/j.pbj.2017.04.009

Comorbidities impact on the prognosis of severe acute community-acquired pneumonia

Porto Biomed J. 2017 Nov-Dec;2(6):265-272. doi: 10.1016/j.pbj.2017.04.009. Epub 2017 May 26.

Authors

Ana Vidal¹, Lurdes Santos²

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Medicine of University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
² Infectious Diseases Department of Sao Joao Hospital Centre, Faculty of Medicine of University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.

Abstract

Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a frequent cause of admission to hospital worldwide with high mortality rates. Host comorbidities may be associated not just with a greater risk of developing the disease but also with worse outcomes. In this work, the evaluation of the impact of host comorbidities on the prognosis of severe CAP patients admitted to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) was proposed. Severity indexes, some clinical and analytic parameters at admission in ICU as well as patient comorbidities were analyzed and statistically compared with mortality. In this study, although there was no clear link between comorbidities and mortality, factors such as smoking, obesity and previous renal disease impairment seem to have an impact on the prognosis of severe CAP.

Keywords: Community-acquired pneumonia; Comorbidities; Prognosis; Severity indexes.