Etiology of community-acquired pneumonia and diagnostic yields of microbiological methods: a 3-year prospective study in Norway

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of 267 hospitalized adult patients with community-acquired pneumonia

Characteristics	Patients
Age, years	66 (52–78)
Female/male	127 (48)/140 (52)
Nursing home resident	4 (1.5)
Patients with any comorbidity	172 (64)
Atherosclerosis^a	71 (27)
COPD	60 (23)
Immune disorder^b	34 (13)
Diabetes mellitus	33 (12)
Renal disease	32 (12)
Asthma	25 (9)
Congestive heart failure	22 (8)
Neurological^c	19 (7)
Dementia	15 (6)
Active malignancy	13 (5)
Innate or acquired immunodeficiency^d	11 (4)
Liver disease	4 (1.5)
Active smoker	65 (24)
Travel history^e	37 (15)
Pneumococcal vaccine^f	25 (13)
Influenza vaccine^f	66 (33)
Antibiotics prior to hospital admission^f	90 (36)
Immunosuppressive drugs^g	37 (14)

Note: Values are presented as No. (%) or median (25th–75th percentile). COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
^aCoronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and/or peripheral artery disease.
^bEleven patients with rheumatoid arthritis, 1 patient with systemic lupus erythematosus, 6 patients with inflammatory bowel disease, 1 patient with autoimmune hepatitis, 3 patients with Sjogren’s disease, 14 patients with psoriasis (2 patients had 2 conditions).
^cCentral nervous disease and/or neuromuscular disease.
^dOne patient with antibody deficiency, 1 patient with HIV, 1 patient with heart transplant, 2 patients with kidney transplant, 1 patient with bone marrow transplant. Three patients had received chemotherapy and 2 had received radiation therapy within last 3 months.
^eTravel abroad past 4 weeks.
^fVaccinated against pneumococcus within previous 10 years; vaccinated against influenza virus within previous 12 months; antibiotics within previous 3 months.
^gImmunosuppressive drugs were defined as any use of systemic steroids, Azathioprine, TNF-alpha inhibitor, Cyclosporine, Cyclophosphamide and/or Methotrexate within previous 3 months.

ISSN: 1471-2334