Modification of phlogosis indices in pneumonia during antibiotic therapy

50 consecutive cases of pneumonia were treated using a standardized diagnostic-therapeutic protocol. The variations of the more common phlogosis indices (erythrocyte sedimentation rate [ESR], C-reactive protein [CRP], leucocytes) during the antibiotic therapy were evaluated, together with clinical progress. Comparative evaluations of the phlogosis indices were taken as well as the X-ray picture. The data analysed, according to the literature, showed a significantly faster and more widespread response to the therapy by the CRP, in respect to ESR and the leucocytes number. This data has been substantially confirmed even in individual groups into which the case study was subdivided. In the "compromised" (according to the British Thoracic Society) patients, the fall in the CRP level was not so early as in the "uncompromised" group. There did not seem to be however different behaviour of ESR and leucocytes between these two groups. Modifications in these two tests over time were rarely significant. An age equal to or greater than 70 appears the element which best defines the state of "compromised host". A comparison of the clinical progress with the variations of the tests of phlogosis and the radiographic tests confirms the usefulness of CRP as an early index of the clinical evolution and the lateness of X-ray tests.