Pneumonia

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Lungs	Pneumococcal pneumonia	Pneumococci organism	Pneumonia
Respiratory system	White nail syndrome

Pneumonitis; Bronchopneumonia; Community-acquired pneumonia

The main symptoms of pneumonia are:

• Cough with greenish or yellow mucus; bloody sputum happens on occasion
• Fever with shaking chills
• Sharp or stabbing chest pain worsened by deep breathing or coughing
• Rapid, shallow breathing  
• Shortness of breath

• Headache
• Excessive sweating and clammy skin
• Loss of appetite
• Excessive fatigue 
• Confusion  in older people

If you have pneumonia, you may be working hard to breathe, or may be breathing fast. Crackles are heard when listening to your chest with a stethoscope. Other abnormal breathing sounds may also be heard through the stethoscope or via percussion (tapping on your chest wall).

The following tests may show signs of pneumonia:

• Chest x-ray
• Gram's stain and culture of your sputum to look for the organism causing your symptoms
• CBC to check white blood cell count; if high, this suggests bacterial infection
• Arterial blood gases  to check how well you are oxygenating your blood
• CAT scan of the chest
• Pleural fluid culture if there is fluid in the space surrounding the lungs

Review Date: 10/31/2005
Reviewed By: Frederic F. Little, M.D., Department of Allergy and Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.