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Wednesday, 11/08/2017
A blood test allows the identification of patients with pneumonia with a higher associated mortality
The work has been published by the journal EBioMedicine.
A multidisciplinary team of researchers, led by the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona-IDIBAPS, the La Fe Hospital in Valencia and the Valladolid University Clinic Hospital, has identified an immunological subtype of Pneumonia Acquired in the Community (CAP) that is associated to a greater mortality. It is a community pneumonia with low blood lymphocytes and has twice the risk of mortality. Patients with this subtype are easy to identify using a simple hemogram, the most common blood test available in all hospitals. The work has been published by the journal EBioMedicine.
Identifying patients with lymphopenic pneumonia will increase the attention and treatment of these patients. This discovery also opens the door to study in the future the role of drugs that stimulate the proliferation and function of lymphocytes to treat this form of pneumonia.