Blood culture in community acquired pneumonia
In the USA there are about four million cases of community acquired pneumonia (CAP) per year with an annual mortality of 45 000. There has been controversy about the value of routine blood culture and researchers at a hospital in New York City have provided evidence against.
The retrospective cohort study included 355 patients out of a total of 821 patients with CAP admitted to hospital from the emergency department between January 1999 and March 2001. For inclusion, patients should not have been in …
