Respiratory Path 7 - SRS Flashcards
Pneumonia is?
Inflammation of the lung parenchyma from any cause, infectious, radiation, chemical exposure, etc.
What organ system is more often than any other involved in infections?
Respiratory tract!
Riddle me seven pneumonia agents!
- • Bacterial
- • Mycobacterial
- • Fungal
- • Pneumocystis
- • Viral
- • Chemical
- • Physical (radiation)
If a pneumonia patient has elevated CRP and/or procalcitonin then what is the likely cause?
Bacterial more likely than viral pneumonia
What are the major predisposind conditions that cause compromise in the conducting airway defenses?
3
- Accumulation of secretions
- Loss or supression of normal cough reflex
- Injury to mucociliary apparatus
What major predisposing factors cause problems in the lower respiratory tract’s defense mechanisms?
- Edema and congestion
- Complement defects
- Abnormalities of phagocytosis or bactericidal activities (EtOH, tabacco, O2)
- HIV, immunosuppression
What is the one huge thing that majorly increases a patients risk of infection by encapsulated organisms?
What are two ways this can happen?
- Splenectomy (encapsulated pneumoccocus a big deal)
- surgical splenectomy
- Autosplenectomy via sicke cell anemia
What is the most common community aquired pneumonia?
Streptococcus pneumoniae G+ diplococci, (MOST COMMON, ↑risk with splenectomy/sickle cell need vaccine)
2?
In COPD patients what is the most common community acquired pneumonia?
Haemophilus influenzae
Moraxella catarrhalis G- diplococci, #2 in COPD
What is the most common post viral pneumonia/influenza?
Staphylococcus aureus. Also most common in IV drug abusers
What is the most common community acquired pneumonia in those with cystic fibrosis and neutropenia?
Pseudomonas aeruginosa G- coccobacilli
What are the three big community-acquired atypical bacterial pneumonias?
- Mycoplasma pneumoniae
- chlamydia species
- coxiella burnetti (Q fever)
What shoud you look for in a patient with a suspected mycoplasma pneumoniae infection?
Cold agglutanins
Aspiration pneumonia can be anaerobic oral flora admixed with aerobic bacteria. What are four anaerobic oral flora that can lead to this?
- bacteriodes
- prevotella
- fusobacterium
- petpostreptococcus
What are the 7 distinct categories of pneumonia syndromes?
- Community-acquired acute pneumonia
- community-acquired atypical pneumonia
- health care associated pneumonia
- Aspiration pneumonia
- Necrotizing pneumonia and lung abscess
- chronic pneumonia
- pneumonia in the immunocompromised host
If you see an immunocompromised patient presenting with pneumonia, what is the most likely organism?
Probably still just going to be S. pneumoiniae.
These patients will still get all the regular ones, they will just also sometimes present with the wierd ones like pneumocystis jirovecii.
Gomez made a point about this, might see him make it again on the exam. If you see an immunocompromised patient with pneumonia don’t jump to a wierd one. If you see a patient with a wierd one, think that they might be immunocompromised.
What shape is streptococci?
What formation do they assume?
What is the exception to the shape rule?
Gram positive cocci that form chains/
The exception is S. pneumoniae which is lancet shaped.
Pretty important distinction for this section
Which of the streptococci are encapsulated?
S. pneumoniae
S. Pyogenes
S. agalactiae
What is the number one cause of bacterial pneumonia in adults?
What makes this virulent?
S. pneumoniae α hemolysis- virulent because of the capsule
What else besides bacterial pneumoniae is S. pneumoniae the number one cause of?
2
- Otitis media in children
- meningitis in adults
After culturing S.pneumoniae, how would you differentiate it from the also α hemolytic S. viridans?
S. pneumoniae is optochin sensitive
What shape is haemophilus? Gram stain?
Gram negative coccobacilli
What is the major virulence factor of haemophilus?
Capsule
Name as many things as you can that haemophilus influenzae is implicated in!
Gomez listed 11
- pneumonia
- acute epiglottitis
- bacteremia
- meningitis
- septic arthritis
- cellulitis
- otitis media
- purulent pericarditis
- endocarditis
- arthritis
- osteomyelitis





















