Lower respiratory tract infection among critically iII patients

ABSTRACT

Sixty-seven selected critically ill patients were included in the study. The aim was to evaluate quantitative culture methods in diagnosing lower respiratory tract infection [LRTI] and to identify the bacterial, fungal and mycoplasma pneumoniae isolates and to determine their antibiograms. Out of the sixty-seven studied patients, two hundred and thirty-seven organisms belonging to seventeen species were isolated. Staph. Aureus represented 34.3%, followed by P. aeruginosa 32.8%, while, H. Influenzae and Ent. cloacae were isolated from 17.9% and 14.9% of patients, respectively, M. Pneumoniae was identified in 10.4% and C. albicans was isolated in 9% of cases only