ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN CLINICAL AND LABORATORY PARAMETERS IN PNEUMOCOCCAL PNEUMONIA FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS HOSPITAL DURING THE YEARS 1996 TO 2005

Abstract

Pneumococcal pneumonia is a significant disease that requires rapid treatment with effective antibiotics. This study attempts to identify associations with clinical and laboratory parameters from pneumococcal pneumonia cases from the University of Kansas Hospital during the years 1996 to 2005 that can be used to identify appropriate antibiotic therapies. Antibiotic resistance profiles together with retrospective chart reviews were used to identify associations. This study found no association between multi-drug non-susceptibility and mortality and no association between classification of pneumonia acquisition in individual groups (CAP, HCAP, HAP, VAP) and mortality. This study did find an association between multi-antibiotic non-susceptibility in isolates from patients who acquired pneumonia in a healthcare setting (HCAP, HAP, VAP). These results suggest the possibility that patients who frequently need healthcare may be more likely to have empiric antibiotic therapy. This may then be associated with carriage of more antibiotic resistant SPN isolates. The empiric antibiotic therapy should be reviewed frequently to provide the best therapy for patients while reserving the other antibiotics for the more acute cases of resistant pneumococcal disease.