Pneumonia differential diagnosis

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-In-Chief: Priyamvada Singh, M.D. [2]

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Overview

Pneumonia should be differentiated from other conditions that cause cough, fever, shortness of breath and tachypnea, such as asthma, COPD, CHF, cancer, GERD, pulmonary emboli.

Differentiating Pneumonia from other Diseases

Differential Diagnosis of Pneumonia [1][2][3]
Disease Findings
Acute bronchitis No infiltrates seen on the chest X-ray.
Asthma Past medical history, no infiltrates seen on chest X-ray.
Bronchiolitis obliterans Should be suspected in patients with pneumonia who do not respond to antibiotics treatment.
Congestive heart failure Bilateral pulmonary edema, shortness of breath.
COPD Past medical history, no infiltrates on chest X-ray, fever is uncommon.
Empyema CXR showing features of pleural effusion, inflammatory markers on thoracocentesis.
Endocarditis Finding of septic pulmonary emboli
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) Normal chest X-ray, symptoms are worse during night and associated with meals.
Lung abscess Chest X-ray shows signs of lung abscess.
Lung cancer Weight loss, clear sputum. CT scan and biopsy are helpful in ruling out malignancy.
Pertussis Productive cough for weeks, nasopharyngeal aspirate aids in diagnosis.
Pulmonary embolus A high degree of suspicion should be kept for pulmonary embolus. Chest X-ray may be normal.
Sinusitis Sinus tenderness, post nasal drip.
Vasculitis Systemic manifestations of collagen vascular disease may be seen.


Differential diagnosis

Causes of

lung cavities

Differentiating Features Differentiating radiological findings Diagnosis

confirmation

  • CXR and CT demonstrates cavities in the upper lobe of the lung
  • Sputum smear positive for acid-fast bacilli and nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT) is used on sputum or any sterile fluid for rapid diagnosis and is positive for mycobacteria.
  • Any age group
  • Acute, fulminant life threating complication of prior infection
  • >100.4F fever, with hemodynamic instability
  • Worsening pneumonia-like symptoms
  • CBC is positive for causative organism
  • Children and elderly are at risk
  • Empyema appears lenticular in shape and has a thin wall with smooth luminal margins
  • Pulmonary nodules with cavities and infiltrates are a frequent manifestation on CXR
  • Elderly females of 40-50 age group
  • Manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis
  • Presents with other systemic symptoms including symmetric arthritis of the small joints of the hands and feet with morning stiffness are common manifestations.
  • Pulmonary nodules with cavitation are located in the upper lobe (Caplan syndrome) on Xray.
  • On CXR bilateral adenopathy and coarse reticular opacities are seen.
  • CT of the chest demonstrates extensive hilar and mediastinal adenopathy
  • Additional findings on CT include fibrosis (honeycomb, linear, or associated with bronchial distortion), pleural thickening, and ground-glass opacities.[10]
  • Common appearance on CT is patchy consolidation,often accompanied by ground-glass opacities and nodules.[14]
  • Exclusively afflicts smokers, with a peak age of onset of between 20 and 40 years.
  • Clinical presentation varies, but symptoms generally include months of dry cough, fever, night sweats and weight loss.
  • Skin is involved in 80% of the cases, scaly erythematous rash is typical.
  • Thin-walled cystic cavities are the usual radiographic manifestation, observed in over 50% of patients by either CXR or CT scans.[16]
  • Biopsy of the lung

Table 1; Differentiating psittacosis from other diseases

Clinical feature Cough Sputum Dyspnea Sore throat Headache Confusion Diarrhea Chest radiograph changes Hyponatremia Leukopenia Abnormal Liver function tests Treatment
Psittacosis ++ - + - +++ + Minimal
  • No changes seen
- + - Doxycycline
C.pneumoniae pneumonia + + + +++ ++ + -
  • Minimal changes observed
- - - Doxycycline, Azithromycin
M. pneumoniae pneumonia ++ ++ ++ - - - - - - + Doxycycline
L. Pneumophila infection + +++ +++ - + ++ + Often Multifocal ++ + ++ Doxycycline
Influenza ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ +/- +/- - - - zanamivir, oseltamivir,
Endocarditis ++ ++ + - - - -
  • Hazy opacities at lung

bases bilaterally

- +/- +/- Vancomycin
Coxiella burnetii infection ++ - + +/- - +/- Minimal - +/- =/- Doxycycline
Leptospirosis ++ + ++ + + ++ -
  • Multiple ill-defined nodules in both lungs.
+++ Doxycycline, azithromycin, amoxicillin
Brucellosis ++ - + - ++ + - -/+ +/- +/- Doxycycline, rifampin

Key;

+, occurs in some cases

++, occurs in many cases,

+++, occurs frequently

References

  1. Schiele F, Muller J, Colinet E, Siest G, Arzoglou P, Brettschneider H; et al. (1992). "Interlaboratory study of the IFCC method for alanine aminotransferase performed with use of a partly purified reference material". Clin Chem. 38 (12): 2365–71. PMID 1458569.
  2. Castro-Guardiola A, Armengou-Arxé A, Viejo-Rodríguez A, Peñarroja-Matutano G, Garcia-Bragado F (2000). "Differential diagnosis between community-acquired pneumonia and non-pneumonia diseases of the chest in the emergency ward". Eur J Intern Med. 11 (6): 334–339. PMID 11113658.
  3. Ahnsjö, Sven (1935). "Contribution to the Differential Diagnosis of Pneumonia in Childhood". Acta Paediatrica. 17 (3): 439–446. doi:10.1111/j.1651-2227.1935.tb07697.x. ISSN 0803-5253.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Chaudhuri MR (1973). "Primary pulmonary cavitating carcinomas". Thorax. 28 (3): 354–66. PMC 470041. PMID 4353362.
  5. Mouroux J, Padovani B, Elkaïm D, Richelme H (1996). "Should cavitated bronchopulmonary cancers be considered a separate entity?". Ann. Thorac. Surg. 61 (2): 530–2. doi:10.1016/0003-4975(95)00973-6. PMID 8572761.
  6. Onn A, Choe DH, Herbst RS, Correa AM, Munden RF, Truong MT, Vaporciyan AA, Isobe T, Gilcrease MZ, Marom EM (2005). "Tumor cavitation in stage I non-small cell lung cancer: epidermal growth factor receptor expression and prediction of poor outcome". Radiology. 237 (1): 342–7. doi:10.1148/radiol.2371041650. PMID 16183941.
  7. 7.0 7.1 Langford CA, Hoffman GS (1999). "Rare diseases.3: Wegener's granulomatosis". Thorax. 54 (7): 629–37. PMC 1745525. PMID 10377211.
  8. Lee KS, Kim TS, Fujimoto K, Moriya H, Watanabe H, Tateishi U, Ashizawa K, Johkoh T, Kim EA, Kwon OJ (2003). "Thoracic manifestation of Wegener's granulomatosis: CT findings in 30 patients". Eur Radiol. 13 (1): 43–51. doi:10.1007/s00330-002-1422-2. PMID 12541109.
  9. Baughman RP, Teirstein AS, Judson MA, Rossman MD, Yeager H, Bresnitz EA, DePalo L, Hunninghake G, Iannuzzi MC, Johns CJ, McLennan G, Moller DR, Newman LS, Rabin DL, Rose C, Rybicki B, Weinberger SE, Terrin ML, Knatterud GL, Cherniak R (2001). "Clinical characteristics of patients in a case control study of sarcoidosis". Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 164 (10 Pt 1): 1885–9. doi:10.1164/ajrccm.164.10.2104046. PMID 11734441.
  10. Brauner MW, Grenier P, Mompoint D, Lenoir S, de Crémoux H (1989). "Pulmonary sarcoidosis: evaluation with high-resolution CT". Radiology. 172 (2): 467–71. doi:10.1148/radiology.172.2.2748828. PMID 2748828.
  11. Murphy J, Schnyder P, Herold C, Flower C (1998). "Bronchiolitis obliterans organising pneumonia simulating bronchial carcinoma". Eur Radiol. 8 (7): 1165–9. doi:10.1007/s003300050527. PMID 9724431.
  12. 12.0 12.1 Al-Ghanem S, Al-Jahdali H, Bamefleh H, Khan AN (2008). "Bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia: pathogenesis, clinical features, imaging and therapy review". Ann Thorac Med. 3 (2): 67–75. doi:10.4103/1817-1737.39641. PMC 2700454. PMID 19561910.
  13. Cordier JF, Loire R, Brune J (1989). "Idiopathic bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia. Definition of characteristic clinical profiles in a series of 16 patients". Chest. 96 (5): 999–1004. PMID 2805873.
  14. Lee KS, Kullnig P, Hartman TE, Müller NL (1994). "Cryptogenic organizing pneumonia: CT findings in 43 patients". AJR Am J Roentgenol. 162 (3): 543–6. doi:10.2214/ajr.162.3.8109493. PMID 8109493.
  15. Suri HS, Yi ES, Nowakowski GS, Vassallo R (2012). "Pulmonary langerhans cell histiocytosis". Orphanet J Rare Dis. 7: 16. doi:10.1186/1750-1172-7-16. PMC 3342091. PMID 22429393.
  16. Moore AD, Godwin JD, Müller NL, Naidich DP, Hammar SP, Buschman DL, Takasugi JE, de Carvalho CR (1989). "Pulmonary histiocytosis X: comparison of radiographic and CT findings". Radiology. 172 (1): 249–54. doi:10.1148/radiology.172.1.2787035. PMID 2787035.


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