[Etiological diagnosis of acute pneumopathies. Evaluative study. 100 cases in a pneumologic center]

This study involved 100 patients with acute pneumonia and hospitalised in a specialised service: 12 bacterial pneumonia, 40 viral pneumonia (i.e. 52% of the total). Only precise viral and bactérial studies could improve these results. Given the poor results obtained using the microbiological techniques available here, the authors suggest the inclusion in all subsequent studies of aetiological diagnosis of a quantitative examination of sputum bacterial flora and examination for the detection of bacterial exoantigens.