What Are The Early Symptoms Of Pneumonia

1. What are the early symptoms of pneumonia

1.1 Chills and hyperthermia

The typical case starts with sudden chills, followed by high fever, the body temperature can be as high as 39℃~40℃, with a fever type, often accompanied by headache, generalized muscle aches, and reduced food intake. The fever pattern may be atypical after antibiotics are administered, and the old and frail may have only a low fever or no fever.

1.2 Cough and sputum

Initially, the cough is dry and irritating, followed by white mucus sputum or sputum with blood, and after 1~2 days, mucus blood sputum or rust-colored sputum may be coughed up, or purulent sputum.

1.3 Chest pain

Most of them have severe lateral chest pain, often pinprick-like, which increases with coughing or deep breathing and may radiate to the shoulder or abdomen. In the case of lower lobe pneumonia, the septal pleura may be stimulated to cause severe abdominal pain, which may be misdiagnosed as acute abdominal disease.

1.4 Respiratory distress

Dyspnea, fast and shallow breathing, is caused by the lack of ventilation of solid lung, chest pain and toxemia. In severe cases, gas exchange is affected and arterial oxygen saturation decreases, resulting in cyanosis.

1.5 Other symptoms

A few have gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal distension or diarrhea. In severe infections, confusion, irritability, drowsiness, coma, etc. may occur.

2. What causes pneumonia?

Clinically, the common causes of pneumonia are atypical pathogens such as Legionella, Mycoplasma and Chlamydia. Physical and chemical causes of pneumonia: radiological pneumonia due to radiation injury, chemical pneumonia due to gastric acid inhalation, lipoid pneumonia due to inflammatory response to inhaled or endogenous lipids, etc.

Fungal pneumonia: such as Candida albicans, Aspergillus, Actinomyces, etc. Bacterial pneumonia:The main causes of pneumonia can be divided into Streptococcus pneumoniae pneumonia, Staphylococcus aureus, hemolytic lotus A, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia, etc. are all causes of pneumonia.

Pneumonia caused by other pathogens: such as rickettsia (such as Q fever rickettsia), toxoplasma (such as Toxoplasma gondii), protozoa (such as Pneumocystis carinii), parasites (such as pulmonary encystment, pulmonary schistosomiasis, pulmonary schistosomiasis) are all causes of pneumonia, so we should stay away from pathogens in life to prevent the occurrence of pneumonia.

3. The high incidence of pneumonia people

• Children who are malnourished.
• Immunocompromised people: children with immune system diseases (such as sickle cell anemia) or undetected immunocompromise (such as immunoglobulin deficiency).
• Older adults aged 60 years or older (diaspora or group home residents).
• Adults and elderly with certain chronic diseases, such as chronic cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, diabetes, chronic liver disease, spleen dysfunction and splenectomy, and patients receiving immunosuppressive therapy.
• Children and adults with recurrent episodes of upper respiratory tract infections.
• Patients with acute or chronic otitis media or sinusitis.

4. What are the differential diagnoses for pneumonia?

4.1 Tuberculosis

The symptoms of systemic toxicity, such as low fever in the afternoon, night sweats, fatigue, weakness, weight loss, insomnia, palpitations, etc., can be seen on X-ray chest X-ray, which shows that the lesions are mostly in the lung tip or above and below the clavicle, with uneven density and slow dissipation, and can form cavities or spread within the lungs. Mycobacterium tuberculosis can be found in the sputum. Conventional antibacterial drug treatment is ineffective.

4.2 Lung cancer

There is often a history of smoking. There are symptoms of cough, sputum and blood in sputum. The diagnosis can be confirmed if cancer cells are found in the sputum. It may be accompanied by obstructive pneumonia, and the inflammation does not dissipate easily after antibiotic treatment, or the lymph nodes in the hilum may be enlarged, and sometimes there is atelectasis. If necessary, CT, MRI, fiberoptic bronchoscopy and sputum exfoliation cell examination should be done.

4. 3 Acute lung abscess

The clinical manifestations are similar in the early stage. As the disease progresses, coughing up large amount of purulent sputum is the characteristic characteristic of lung abscess, and X-ray film shows pus cavity and fluid plane.

4.4 Pulmonary thromboembolism

Pulmonary thromboembolism has risk factors of venous thrombosis, hemoptysis, syncope, dyspnea and jugular vein filling. x-ray chest radiograph shows localized pulmonary texture reduction, wedge-shaped shadow with the tip pointing to the hilum, hypoxemia and hypocarbia are common, D-dimer, CT pulmonary arteriography, radionuclide pulmonary ventilation/perfusion scan and MRI can help to differentiate.

4.5  Non-infectious pulmonary infiltrates

Non-infectious pulmonary diseases such as interstitial fibrosis, pulmonary edema, pulmonary atelectasis, pulmonary eosinophilic infiltrates and pulmonary vasculitis need to be excluded.

The early symptoms of pneumonia are introduced here, if you have the above symptoms, you must pay attention to them and seek medical attention in time to avoid aggravation of the disease.