You pick up a 65 year old man with no known past medical history and a chief complaint of cough and fever for three days.
On physical exam you find a slightly confused man with an unhealthy obsession with Larry David, who is febrile and has crackles in his left lung base. Otherwise, the exam is within normal limits.
His labs reveal a CBC with a hemoglobin of 13.2 g/dL, and a Comprehensive panel with Na: 136mEq/dl, K: 4.8 mEq/dl, a BUN of 20 mg/dl and Creatinine: 0.7mg/dl.
His Chest X-ray reveals an opacification highly suggestive of a left lower lobe pneumonia.
What is this poor man's 30 day risk of dying of pneumonia (low, moderate or high)?
A little more...
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Written by Dr. Itamar
Special thanks to Dr. Willis
The views expressed on this blog are the author's own and do not reflect the views of their employer. Please read our full disclaimer here. Any references to clinical cases refer to patients treated at a virtual hospital, Janus General Hospital.
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Itamar Goldstein
Resident in the combined Emergency and Internal Medicine program at Kings County Hospital and Downstate Medical Center.
Pretty pretty pretty pretty good post