Early Diagnosis of Pneumonia in Severe Stroke: Clinical Features and the Diagnostic Role of C-Reactive Protein Article Swipe

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Medicine Pneumonia Internal medicine Crackles Stroke (engine) Youden's J statistic C-reactive protein Sputum Receiver operating characteristic Gastroenterology Physical examination Tuberculosis Pathology Inflammation Engineering Mechanical engineering

Anushka Warusevitane , Dumin Karunatilake , Julius Sim , Craig J. Smith , Christine Roffe ·

YOU? · · 2016 · Open Access · · DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0150269 · OA: W2294058095

Patients with severe stroke frequently do not manifest key diagnostic features of pneumonia such as pyrexia, cough and purulent sputum early in their illness. The most common signs in this group are new-onset crackles, tachypnoea and hypoxia. Our results suggest that a CRP >25 mg/L should prompt investigations for pneumonia while values >65 mg/L have the highest diagnostic accuracy to justify consideration of this threshold as a diagnostic marker of post-stroke pneumonia.