Seminars in respiratory infections
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Legionnaires' disease is a systemic infectious disease primarily involving the lungs, with multisystemic extrapulmonary manifestations. Any species of Legionella may cause legionnaires' disease in normal and compromised hosts. ⋯ The syndromic approach based on a weighted point evaluation system described in the article gives physicians a system to arrive at a rapid presumptive clinical diagnosis of legionnaires' disease. Definitive diagnosis of legionnaires' disease is by direct fluorescent antibody testing of respiratory specimens, serological methods, Legionella urinary antigenuria, or culture.