European journal of internal medicine
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Eur. J. Intern. Med. · Dec 2000
Differential diagnosis between community-acquired pneumonia and non-pneumonia diseases of the chest in the emergency ward.
Background: The differential diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia and some non-pneumonia diseases involving the chest may sometimes be cumbersome. Adding some objective variables to the diagnostic strategy may be helpful. We evaluated the main objective variables that are usually available in the emergency ward and that may be valuable in this differential diagnosis. ⋯ In the multivariate analysis, only C-reactive protein remained in the equation. Conclusions: C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, leukocyte count, and temperature were measurable variables that proved to be useful in the differential diagnosis between community-acquired pneumonia and non-pneumonia diseases. C-reactive protein appears to be the most suitable for this purpose.