Comparative analysis of clinical characteristics of recurrent community-acquired pneumonia in young males
A comparative analysis of the clinical course of initial community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and recurrent uncomplicated community-acquired pneumonia (rCAP), developed within 12 months after initial episode of pneumonia, was performed in 132 patients of pulmonology units of Military clinical hospitals in Khabarovsk and Ussuriysk. The results of clinical examination were compared with similar data of general population comprising 696 patients with CAP. The cases studied were between age group of 18-27 years. The development of rCAP was found reliably more often in the same segments of the same lung which were affected by initial pneumonia process (in 66,0 % and 36,9 % (p<0,005) of cases, consequently). Bilateral rCAP developed after unilateral initial pneumonia and unilateral rCAP developed after initial bilateral pneumonia were found to occur with the same frequency - in 11,9 % and 12,9 % of cases, consequently. The volume of pneumonic infiltration in initial and recurrent pneumonia was almost identical. The majority of cases of rCAP (72,6 %) developed within 2 months after initial CAP, then the number of cases was decreasing exponentially. A clinical course of rCAP and initial CAP was identical except faster normalization of neutrophils levels and ESR in blood test. No reliable difference in amount and composition of antibacterial therapy in studied cases was revealed. Thus, such characteristics as the size of impairment, localization and clinical course were found to be nearly identical in studied rCAP and initial CAP cases.