Pulmonary Infections Masquerading as Community-Acquired Pneumonia

The purpose of this research is to identify cases from patients who have been referred for consultation to the Infectious Disease Section at the VAMC, Houston, and to compare them with other cases of CAP in order to determine whether there are features that might enable non-CAP cases to be distinguished from CAP.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Pneumonia

Detailed Description

Guidelines to treat community acquired pneumonia (CAP) have been developed and widely promulgated by important professional societies in the past 10 years. The impetus to do so came from the observation that practicing physicians were using a wide array of approaches to this common infection, many of which were substandard.

The Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) and American Thoracic Society (ATS) have been leaders in this field, publishing recommendations separately between 1993 and 2003. The PI served on the IDSA committee and coauthored the publication in 2000 and the update in 2003. In 2004, a decision was made by the two professional societies to merge the committees and make a single joint set of recommendations; the PI is a member of that joint committee and a new document is being prepared for publication.

The PI has observed a tendency to apply these guidelines to cases that might masquerade as CAP but are actually attributable to other conditions, such as lung cancer, tuberculosis and histoplasmosis. Further, the recommendations do not adequately cover pneumonia due to Staphylococcus aureus.

The purpose of the research is to identify cases from the consult records of the Infectious Disease Section at the VAMC, Houston, and to compare them with other cases of CAP in order to determine whether there are features that might enable non-CAP cases to be distinguished from CAP.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 40

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Texas
    • Houston, Texas, United States, 77030
      • Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 64 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Patients with Pulmonary infections.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• subjects who were seen in calendar year 2004 because they were thought to have CAP, but who, upon further evaluation, plainly did not, and consultation was sought.
• case control is diagnosis of CAP with verification by all or nearly all of the following features: presence of cough, increased sputum, fever, leukocytosis and a distinct new pulmonary infiltrate.

Exclusion Criteria:

• among the case controls, if the diagnosis of CAP was made despite the absence of the cardinal features of CAP, as cited above, the investigators will not include the case.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center
• Collaborators: Baylor College of Medicine
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Daniel M Musher, M.D., Baylor College of Medicine, Houston VA Medical Center

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: January 1, 2004
• Primary Completion (Actual): January 1, 2007
• Study Completion (Actual): January 1, 2007

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 16, 2006
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 16, 2006
• First Posted (Estimate): March 17, 2006

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): October 29, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 22, 2021
• Last Verified: October 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: CAP; Community Acquired Pneumonia
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Infections; Respiratory Tract Infections; Respiratory Tract Diseases; Lung Diseases; Pneumonia
• Other Study ID Numbers: H-17555