Outcome of community-acquired pneumonia with cardiac complications

Incidence, mortality, and lethality of hospitalizations for community-acquired pneumonia with comorbid cardiovascular disease in Spain (1997-2015)

BACKGROUND

The probability of hospitalization in patients suffering from community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) with an underlying comorbidity, such as a cardiac pathology, is 73-fold higher than that in CAP patients without a comorbidity. Although previous studies have investigated patients with cardiac events and pneumonia, they have not studied the burden of disease in depth at the population level. The objective of this study is to provide population-level data on patients ≥60 years old who were hospitalized with pneumonia with comorbid cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Spain over a period of 19 years (1997-2015).

METHODS

This is a retrospective study based on a minimum basic data set (MBDS). The following variables were collected: age, sex, re-admission (yes/no), hospital stay (days), and other diagnoses. Hospitalization rate (per 100,000 inhabitants), mortality rate (per 100,000 inhabitants), and lethality rate (%) were obtained, and the 95% confidence interval of each rate was calculated. Analyses were stratified by age (categorized into 4-year intervals), sex, and year of admission. Differences were assessed for significance with the chi-squared test for proportions and the Poisson model for rates. Logistic regression was run with in-hospital survival as the dependent variable and sex, age, year of admission, and re-admission (yes/no) as the independent variables. The level of significance was p < 0.005.

RESULTS

The total number of patients ≥60 years old hospitalized for pneumonia with comorbid CVD was 99,346. The rates of hospitalization, mortality, and lethality increased significantly with age over the 19 years. Men had higher rates of hospitalization and mortality. The probability of a patient with CAP and CVD dying was correlated with male sex, older age, hospital re-admission, and having been hospitalized earlier in the study period.

CONCLUSIONS

Community-acquired pneumonia with comorbid cardiovascular disease continues to be a major cause of hospitalization in Spain, especially in the elderly population, making it necessary to develop more preventive strategies for this group of patients.

New observations support William Osler's rationale for systemic bloodletting

Bloodletting has been called William Osler's "blind spot," especially with respect to pneumonia. Also puzzling has been his endorsement of bleeding in selected cases of heatstroke. Recent clinical observations on pneumonia and, to a lesser extent, heatstroke lend support to Osler's rationale for bloodletting in these conditions. A 21st-century rationale now exists for all eight indications for systemic bloodletting listed by Osler in the first edition of his textbook, The Principles and Practice of Medicine (1892): treatment of acute heart failure (seven of the eight indications) or rapid lowering of blood pressure (in subarachnoid hemorrhage accompanied by severe hypertension). These observations support the narrative that during Osler's lifetime, bloodletting became more "rational" largely on the basis of cumulative clinical experience.