Beyond ground glass: correlation of imaging and microbiological patterns in different types of pneumonia

Abstract

Lower respiratory infections are a frequent cause of consultation and hospitalization worldwide, making their diagnosis a challenge. Currently, there is a tool for its diagnosis that includes microbiological, serological and imaging studies, recording various conclusions in the consulted literature regarding the existence of microbiological-tomographic correlation. Regarding the methodological aspect, it was a cross-sectional analytical observational study, through the review of 135 tomography scans with their respective microbiological isolation in order to establish possible correlation between patterns and germs. Likewise, the patterns of each tomography were established in alveolar, ground glass, cobblestone, nodular or mixed, if there was presence of pleural effusion, architectural damage, lymphadenopathy and the distribution of the condition. In this study, the R value was determined through tables and the use of Chi square, which was not significant to establish correlation, but it could be noted that the majority of pneumonias presented the gram-negative bacterial group as the primary causal agent with the main exponent being Escherichia coli, as well as the viral group, influenza type A, observing a predominance of cases of consolidation associated with bacterial and viral infections with a tendency to ground glass opacities, recommending that this investigation continue. increasing the sample size for future research.