Usefulness of the Legionella Score for differentiating from COVID-19 pneumonia to legionella pneumonia.
J Infect Chemother
; 28(10): 1353-1357, 2022 Oct.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1983462
ABSTRACT
Legionella pneumophila is a major causative pathogen of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), but recently the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) became the most common causative pathogen of CAP. Because L. pneumophila CAP is clinically distinct from bacterial CAPs, the Japan Society for Chemotherapy (JSC) developed a simple scoring system, the Legionella Score, using six parameters for the presumptive diagnosis of L. pneumophila pneumonia. We investigated the clinical and laboratory differences of L. pneumophila CAP and COVID-19 CAP and validated the Legionella Score in both CAP groups. We analyzed 102 patients with L. pneumophila CAP and 956 patients with COVID-19 CAP. Dyspnea and psychiatric symptoms were more frequently observed and cough was less frequently observed in patients with L. pneumophila CAP than those with COVID-19 CAP. Loss of taste and anosmia were observed in patients with COVID-19 CAP but not observed in those with L. pneumophila CAP. C-reactive protein and lactate dehydrogenase levels in L. pneumophila CAP group were significantly higher than in the COVID-19 CAP group. In contrast, sodium level in the L. pneumophila CAP group was significantly lower than in the COVID-19 CAP group. The median Legionella Score was significantly higher in the L. pneumophila CAP group than the COVID-19 CAP group (score 4 vs 2, p < 0.001). Our results demonstrated that the JSC Legionella Score had good diagnostic ability during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, physicians should consider COVID-19 CAP when loss of taste and/or anosmia are observed regardless of the Legionella Score.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Pneumonia
/
Legionella
/
Legionnaires' Disease
/
Legionella pneumophila
/
Community-Acquired Infections
/
Ageusia
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
J Infect Chemother
Journal subject:
Microbiology
/
Drug Therapy
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS