Guideline for Antibiotic Use in Adults with Community-acquired Pneumonia

Lee, Mi Suk; Oh, Jee Youn; Kang, Cheol-In; Kim, Eu Suk; Park, Sunghoon; Rhee, Chin Kook; Jung, Ji Ye; Jo, Kyung-Wook; Heo, Eun Young; Park, Dong-Ah; Suh, Gee Young; Kiem, Sungmin

However, it is necessary to take follow-up chest X-rays to eliminate the possibility of underlying diseases such as pneumonia for patients who are 50 years old or older, male, and smokers. In a large-scale cohort study involving 3,000 patients, 1.1% patients diagnosed with community-acquired pneumonia were newly diagnosed with pneumonia within 90 days, and age of 50 years or older (adjusted HR 19.0, 95% CI 5.7-63.6), male gender (adjusted HR 1.8, 95% CI 1.1-2.9), and smoking (adjusted HR 1.7, 95% CI 1.0-3.0) were significant risk factors of pneumonia [201] . Of 236 patients with community-acquired pneumonia, 10 were diagnosed with pneumonia, and high proportion (17%) of these patients was aged 60 years or older. Therefore, it is necessary to take follow-up chest X-rays from patients with community-acquired pneumonia [72] . In addition, to eliminate the possibility of pneumonia and underlying diseases in patients who do not show sufficient clinical improvements at 4-5 weeks after treatment, chest X-rays may be repeatedly obtained [202] .