European journal of clinical pharmacology
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Eur. J. Clin. Pharmacol. · Apr 2001
The effect of community-acquired pneumonia on plasma esterases in older people.
Pneumonia is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in older people. The poor outcome of older pneumonia patients despite treatment is still not understood. ⋯ The activities of several esterases are reduced in older pneumonia patients. Other enzymes including aspirin esterase and induced monocyte AHH activity are unaltered in pneumonia. There was a significant inverse relationship between the activities of all esterases studied and the British Thoracic Society pneumonia poor prognostic index.