Despite the fact that medicine is rapidly madeForward and developed many powerful antibacterial drugs, pneumonia is still one of the most common and deadly diseases, which in terms of death rates ranks third after strokes and oncological diseases. Unfortunately, it is not possible to reduce the incidence.
Pneumonia is an inflammatory process of infectious origin that negatively affects the lower respiratory tract with the indispensable involvement of lung matter.
Types of pneumonia:
- Community-acquired pneumonia is perhaps the most common type of disease.
- Hospital pneumonia.This form of the disease manifests itself in a person who has been in hospital for a long time, provided that during the hospitalization the patient did not have a single symptom that is aware of the presence of this ailment.
- Pulmonary aspiration inflammation is a form of disease that results from the ingestion of pathogenic bacteria through food, water, or any other foreign matter.
- Atypical inflammation of the lungs is perhaps the most severe form of the disease, since it is caused by atypical microflora (for example, chlamydia, mycoplasmas, etc.).
Causes of pneumonia
It should be borne in mind that pneumonia is a disease of bacterial origin.
The main causative agents of the disease are:staphylococcus, pneumococcus and hemophilic bacilli. In rarely encountered situations, Klebsiella, E. coli, can become an impetus to the disease, but this is if the patient has severe illnesses that go along in parallel.
Factors that significantly increase the likelihood of getting pneumonia:
- Damage to internal organs, especially the kidneys, heart and lungs.
- Reduced level of the body's protective barrier.
- The presence of cancer.
- Preliminary implementation of artificial ventilation of the lungs.
- The defeat of the central nervous system.
- Age over 60 years.
- The impact of general anesthesia on the body.
Symptoms of pneumonia
What is pneumonia in adults? The main manifestations of pneumonia are:
- Rapidly rising and holding heat to 39 degrees.
- Copious cough with expectoration in large quantities.
- Shortness of breath at rest or with slight physical exertion.
- Pain or discomfort in the chest area.
In most cases, patients notea significant decrease in performance, weakness, fatigue, excessive sweating, sleep problems and lack of appetite. Elderly patients may also experience general intoxication of the body. It is worth noting that there is a category of people who have pneumonia without symptoms or with mild - dry cough, recurrent headaches and weakness.
How does pneumonia manifest in children?Most often, pneumonia in children develops very rapidly, and it is caused by complications after acute respiratory infections. The most common age is from six months to 6 years. The vast majority of pneumonia in children provokes pneumococcus. If you begin to suspect that your child is sick, you should immediately consult a doctor. Treatment is usually carried out in the hospital. Pneumonia without symptoms in children does not actually occur.
This disease is rapidly progressing, so negligence and inadequate treatment will not tolerate. Inactivity can be fatal!
General blood test for pneumonia: the rules of delivery
In order to avoid significant errors in the study of your overall analysis, you should thoroughly prepare for their delivery and follow all the rules listed below:
- Blood donation should be carried out strictly on an empty stomach and in the morning. You can only use the inside of purified water without gases.
- The evening meal should be finished at least 8 hours before the estimated time of blood donation.
- A couple of days before the tests, you should refrain from using any drugs, since they are able to significantly change the composition of the blood.
- During the day you must refrain from fatty foods, alcohol and avoid physical exertion.
What tests for pneumonia need to pass
Pneumonia is an extremely deadly disease that requires timely detection and appropriate research. Diagnosis should include the following components:
- Biochemical composition of blood.
- General urine analysis.
- General analysis of sputum.
- Fluorography.
With pneumonia, a blood test is the mostmandatory component of diagnosis. Rarely, but there are cases when the results of blood tests are normal, but the inflammatory processes will still occur. This indicates that the patient's immune system is weakened so that it is not able to affect the flowing disease.
Changes in test scores due to exposure
With pneumonia, a blood test in an adultIt should show a fairly high level of leukocytes, but this is provided that the immune system is still able to resist the disease. The indicator of ESR should reach critical levels. If intoxication occurs in the body for a long time, then anemia may develop. The normal course of pneumonia is not able to manifest itself in the analyzes. Only in the case when a crisis approaches, can the rate of eosinophils rapidly increase.
In the event that with pneumonia the blood test does not show leukocytosis, then this is a bad bell for adults.
Blood test for pneumonia in a child:
- Erythrocyte index is normal or slightly reduced. The neglected form of the disease, on the contrary, provokes a rapid increase in the number of red blood cells in the body.
- In pneumonia, a child's blood test indicates an increased number of white blood cells, which indicates the presence of a bacterial disease.
- The number of various forms of band neutrophils is rapidly increasing.
- A blood test for pneumonia in a child shows that the disease leads to a rapid decrease in the level of lymphocytes.
- ESR is several times higher than the required rate.
Pneumonia: diagnosis and treatment
The course of treatment for mild pneumonia canappoint doctors with a wide profile: general practitioners, pediatricians, family doctors. As for the severe form of the disease, then hospitalization is required in a specialized department - pulmonary.
The basis of the treatment of pneumonia -antibacterial drugs (antibiotics). The drug, dosage and duration of admission must be determined by the doctor, depending on many factors: the patient's age, features of the course of the disease and the presence of additional diseases. In most cases, the treatment takes place in a complex, with the use of several antibacterial drugs.
The average duration of treatment is 10 days.
Prevention of pneumonia
Completely exclude the possibility of diseaseimpossible, but you can make maximum efforts to protect yourself and your loved ones. First of all, you should try to live in accordance with a healthy lifestyle: adhere to proper nutrition, become tempered, play sports, spend a lot of time outdoors, avoid stressful situations and adhere to all personal hygiene rules. It is necessary to eat vegetable food or dietary supplements so that the immune system does not interfere. It is recommended that bed patients be given regular massage courses and specially designed breathing and therapeutic exercises, and antiplatelet therapy may also be advisable (for example, Trentala, Heparina, etc.).
Be extremely scrupulous and attentive to the state of health, because timely diagnosis and treatment of ailments can significantly increase the life expectancy of a person!
