lung and airway disorders
Community Acquired Pneumonia
Diagnosis of Community Acquired Pneumonia
Usually a chest x-ray or computed tomography (CT) scan of the chest No matter what type of pneumonia is suspected, doctors listen to a person’s chest with a stethoscope to make a diagnosis. Chest x-rays or CT scans are usually also done to confirm the diagnosis. Doctors usually do not need to do additional tests to determine what organism is causing the pneumonia, because most organisms are effectively treated by standard treatment and identifying the organism does not make a difference in treatment success. However, if doctors do need to identify the organism, they usually try to grow or identify parts of the organism from a specimen of sputum, blood, or urine. Even when such testing is done, the organism is identified less than half the time. infection. In people who have first had symptoms typical of Symptoms or of 