Description of Pneumococcal Community-acquired Pneumonia in General Practice in France

Detailed Summary

Statement of the problem: Overprescription of antibiotics raises important public health issues because of the emergence of multiresistant bacteria by selection pressure. The results of the observational prospective study entitled "CAPA" on the description of 886 suspected cases of acute community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) treated in general practices in France confirm that, whatever the etiologic hypothesis and the results of the chest X-ray, these patients routinely receive antibiotics. Therefore, it is important to be able to distinguish cases of pneumococcal CAP in which early antibiotic treatment is justified from those cases for which another strategy could be considered. Primary objective: To identify the clinical, biological and radiological characteristics of patients with pneumococcal CAP amongst all patients with CAP radiologically confirmed, in general practice in France. Design : Prospective cross-sectional descriptive study. Inclusion criteria. Adults older than 18 showing clinical signs suggestive of CAP (at least one sign of infection and at least one pulmonary sign) and able to realize chest X ray within 6 hours after prescription. Patient follow-up procedures. Patients will be treated by standard of care according to French recommendations. After observing clinical signs suggestive of CAP, the physician prescribes a chest X-ray. Then, protocol-specific examinations (blood sample, oropharyngeal sample for multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR), sputum sample testing (induced expectoration if possible), urinary sample) will be performed on all out patients. Patients will be contacted again on day 28 to increase diagnostic certainty. For patients with clinical signs of CAP and hospitalized, the investigator will ask their consent to retrieve the hospital report, on or before day 28 and to be contacted on day 90.

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