Professional paper
https://doi.org/10.37797/ig.41.3.4
Diagnosis and Treatment of Legionnaires' Disease
Maša Puljiz
orcid.org/0000-0002-6965-7188
; University of Zagreb, School of Medicine, Zagreb, Croatia
Dalibor Vukelić
; University of Zagreb, School of Medicine, Zagreb, Croatia; University Hospital for Infectious Diseases "Dr. Fran Mihaljević", Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
A retrospectively analysis was performed of the clinical characteristics and antimicrobial therapy in 60 patients with legionnaires' disease, hospitalized at the University Hospital for Infectious Diseases “Dr. Fran Mihaljević” in Zagreb in a 2-year period, from 2018 to 2019. The diagnosis of legionnaires' disease was confirmed by serological tests and/or by determining the antigen of L. pneumophila serotype 1 in urine. The leading symptoms of disease were fever (100,0%), cough (83,3%) and chills (81,7%), and the most significant laboratory findings were increased C- reactive protein (100,0%), accelerated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (98,1%) and leukocytosis (79,7%). More than two-thirds of patients had bronchopulmonary lung infiltrate (68,3%) and pleural effusion was recorded in 41,7% of patients. The most common initial antimicrobial therapy in the hospital was a combination of beta-lactam antibiotic and azithromycin (53,3%). In approximately half of the patients (48,3%) the initial antimicrobial therapy was corrected, most often to azithromycin monotherapy (35,4%), followed by levofloxacin (6,7%) and moxifloxacin (5,0%). There was no difference in the treatment of patients between azithromycin, levofloxacin and moxifloxacin. Three (5,0%) patients died.
Keywords
legionnaires´ disease; diagnosis; therapy
Hrčak ID:
275271
URI
Publication date:
22.3.2022.
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