Lower Respiratory Tract infections Flashcards
What is the key determinant of pneumonia?
Age. Viruses predominate in childhood, and bacteria cause secondary infections
What are the two types of adult pneumonia + their risk factors?
- Community acquired - risk factors include alcohol abuse, occupational exposure, or underlying condition
- Nosocomial - immunocompromised or ventilation
What is “atypical pneumonia”?
Pneumonia caused by a pathogen other than Streptococcus pneumoniae
How is the capsule of pneumococcus involved in pathogenesis in the lungs?
Prevents C3b complement deposition and engulfment via alveolar macrophages. Capsule also facilitates evasion of lung surfactant
What is the function of pneumolysin and its role in pathogenesis of pneumonia?
Binds cholesterol, forms a large pore in cell membrane (similar to SLO of GAS or alpha-toxin of S. aureus)
Facilitates evasion of immune response, clearance from nasopharynx. Permits spread from alveoli to bloodstream for bacteremia. Also fixes complement, for immune response.
Other than pneumolysin, what is another major virulence factor that ellicits an inflammatory response?
Cell wall techoic acid and peptidoglycan
Of B. pertussis and S. pneumoniae, which one is only a human pathogen?
THEY BOTH ARE!!
How does pneumococcus relate to AIDS?
Recurrent pneumococcal pneumonia is a presenting manifestation of AIDS (along with Candida esophagitis from earlier)
Why are stroke, alcoholism, drugs, anesthesia, and viral infection all risk factors of pneumococcal pneumonia?
Compromised cough reflex allows pneumococcal entrance into lower respiratory tract
What antibody usually facilitates clearance of pneumococcus from the lower respiratory tract?
Anti-capsular
What is the primary cause of death in pneumococcal pneumonia?
Rusty lobar (sketchy) pneumonia occurs, with purulent material in alveoli. Inflammation leads to increase in vascular permeability -> fluid accumulation. Disrupted gas exchange due to fluid will suffocate patient
What are two secondary complications of pneumonia?
- Bacteremia from inflammation
2. Resultant meningitis due to vascular endothelial death and entrance across blood-brain barrier
What is the primary diagnostic tool of pneumonia and what is a common problem?
Sputum is gram-stained -> should be monomicrobial and contain PMNs
Problem: contamination with oropharynx microbes + saliva which can be polymicrobial and have squamous epithelium
What is a common radiological finding of pneumococcal pneumonia?
Bronchopneumia which consolidates to lobar pneumonia “rusty pneumonia”
How does encapsulated vs nonencapsulated Hemophilius influenza pneumonia differ?
Non-encapsulated (non-typable) - more common due to higher carrier rate, lower virulence
Encapsulated (type b) - less common, higher virulence and presents like S. pneumoniae, higher incidence of positive blood cultures vs non-typable
What is a hallmark presentation of Hib in 2-5 year old children?
Pneumonia and cherry red epiglottis (epiglottitis)
What are the predisposing factors of pneumonia via nontypable H. influenzae?
- COPD
- Emphysema
- Chronic bronchitis
What is the morphology and growth requirements of Hemophilus influenzae?
Small, gram negative coccobacillary rods
Requires factor 5 (nicotinamide) and factor 10 (hematin) for growth
What are the major virulence factors of Legionella pneumophila?
- Outer membrane proteins for macrophage entry
- Metalloprotease similar to elastase of P. aeruginosa
- dot locus
- Phospholipase C
What is the function of the dot locus in legionella?
dot = defect in organelle trafficking, prevents phagolyososome fusion in macrophages carrying Legionella, and recruits ribosomes to lysosome for nucleotides / amino acids
What is the function of PLC for Legionella?
Damages phospholipid membranes of eukaryotic cells, permitting engulfed bacteria to escape from phagocytic vesicle
How do Legionella species typically survive in the environment?
They are parasites of freshwater and soil protozoa / amoeba (i.e. Acanthamoeba, Naeglaria), and thus live in reservoirs of amoeba/bacteria -> cooling towers of A/c systems, plumbing especially showerheads and faucet aerators, hospital respiratory therapy equipment
How is Legionella spread?
Typically via aerosolization through air conditioning ducts or shower heads and inhaled. Living inside amoeba makes it more resistant to disinfection. Cannot be spread person to person
What are the two diseases caused by Legionella? What are the clinical characteristics?
- Legionnaire’s Disease - severe lobar pnuemonia causing hyponatremia, diarrhea, headaches, confusion, and high fever
- Pontiac fever - Shorter incubation, self limiting, malaise which is less severe than the pneumonia (less virulent or dead strains)
What are the mechanisms by which Legionella enters the macrophage?
- Has surface protein for C3 binding and complement-mediated phagocytosis
- “Coiling phagocytosis” - induces alveolar macrophage uptake in the absence of opsonization via phagocytosis
How is Legionella rapidly diagnosed?
Urine soluble antigen testing, or need a direct lung biopsy since the organism is rarely found in the sputum
How is Legionella typically stained?
Gram stains poorly although it is a gram negative rod, can be visualized via silver staining
What does Acetinobacter cause?
Pneumonia or serious blood/wound infections in immunocompromised
What is significant about Acetinobacter and what is its morphology?
It is multiple-drug resistant and nosocomial, with a high incidence in U.S. Gulf War soldiers
Morphology: gram negative coccobacillus (similar to H. influenzae or B. pertussis)
What are the three major virulence factors of Mycoplasma pneumoniae?
- Adhesin - which binds sialic acid-containing glycolipids / proteins on bronchial epithelium
- Hydrogen peroxide and superoxide radicals to cause tissue damage
- Autoantibodies react with many body tissues due to homology between host cells and mycoplasma glycolipids
What type of pneumonia is characteristic of Mycoplasma and who gets it?
Highly infectious pneumonia often had by young people (<30 years) living in close quarters (i.e. military), called “walking pneumonia”
X-ray appears way worse than it actually is, with diffuse infiltrates
How is Mycoplasma cultured and detected?
Cultured on Eaton’s agar, lacks a cell wall and has a very small genome (Gram indeterminate). Sputum will not show organisms and organism grows very slowly.
Often detected via serodiagnosis for IgM antibodies
What are the two forms of Chlamydia pneumonia?
- Elementary body (EB) - enters the columnar epithelial cells of bronchioles
- Reticulate body (RB) - replicate and rely on host ATP before reorganizing into elementary bodies
What is the clinical presentation of Chlamydia pneumonia?
Atypical or walking pneumonia, similar clinical picture to Mycoplasma pneumoniae, presents in schoolchildren or young adults.
Can also cause pharyngitis and bronchitis