Clinical pneumonia is classified based on how long a person has had it and how they got it. Doctors determine if it is acute or chronic and community-acquired or hospital-acquired to narrow down possible causes. Misdiagnosis is a risk due to non-biological factors and new viruses.
Clinical pneumonia is a way of classifying pneumonia based on both how long a person has had pneumonia and how they got the disease. Since there are many biological and non-biological causes of pneumonia, this classification system is essential for a patient to be able to start treatment as early as possible. After designating pneumonia as acute or chronic, a doctor determines whether it is community-acquired or hospital-acquired. Because the cause of a pneumonia can be ruled out by these choices, the problem of misdiagnoses is growing.
The problem with diagnosing pneumonia is that the condition itself—inflammation of lung tissue and the lungs filling up with fluid—can be caused by parasites, fungi, bacteria, or environmental conditions like dust. Because pneumonia can quickly become life-threatening, doctors need to systematically approach the diagnosis of the root cause. Examining clinical features—how and when pneumonia occurs—allows doctors to diagnose clinical pneumonia. For example, if the clinical diagnosis reveals that a patient’s pneumonia is most likely caused by a bacterium, the patient is given broad-spectrum antibiotics. If antibiotics are ineffective, a doctor must rework his clinical diagnosis.
The first step a doctor takes in diagnosing clinical pneumonia is to determine whether the pneumonia is acute or chronic. A patient with acute pneumonia developed the condition within three weeks of visiting their doctor. Chronic pneumonia is a condition that has lasted for a longer period of time. The distinction is important, because if a doctor can determine whether a pneumonia is acute or chronic, they can significantly narrow the list of possible causes. Before treatment can begin, it is still necessary to know where the patient has contracted the pneumonia.
Community-acquired and hospital-acquired clinical pneumonia are the two choices a physician considers before treating his or her patient. Community-acquired narrows the list of causes to certain groups of bacteria and viruses. It is the most common type. Hospital acquisition is considered only if the patient was recently hospitalized or if pneumonia developed during a hospital stay. A group of bacteria, including MRSA, cause hospital-acquired clinical pneumonia.
Although the clinical diagnosis of pneumonia usually allows you to start treatment earlier and save more lives, a misdiagnosis of clinical pneumonia caused by a chemical or non-biological factor is a real possibility. Heavy dust and some aerosol chemicals create the same set of symptoms as viral or bacterial pneumonia. A patient may receive the wrong treatment as her condition worsens. Additionally, the rise of new pneumonia-causing viruses such as SARS is forcing physicians to reconsider the overall effectiveness of clinical diagnosis.
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