Caseous pneumonia: symptoms, treatment, medical history, clinical course, photo, differential diagnosis

At the moment, modern society is threatened with several epidemics, which threaten to move into a pandemic. These are diseases such as HIV, hepatitis B and C and, of course, tuberculosis. A high percentage of deaths and disabling consequences do not leave a person with chances to fight the disease, and if we take into account that the diagnosis depends on the patients themselves, their trust in the doctor and the desire to be treated, then we have, to put it mildly, an unpleasant picture.

Definition of

Caseous pneumonia is a form of development of pulmonary tuberculosis. It proceeds more malignantly than the usual pneumonia caused by the coccal flora. And is characterized by the predominance of necrotic processes in the lungs with the formation of curdled masses instead of normal pulmonary parenchyma. Over time, they are lysed, and large cavities remain in their place. Subsequently, they can both cicatrize, which reduces the airiness of the lungs and, accordingly, the amount of incoming oxygen, and expand, pushing the parenchyma of the organ to the periphery. This process also negatively affects gas exchange and leads to the progression of exogenous hypoxia.

Classification of

Depending on the area of ​​the damaged tissue, caseous pneumonia is divided into three subtypes:

1. Lobar. An independent form that captures the whole of the whole. Since the volume of damaged and necrotic tissue is large, patients have a severe intoxication symptom. As a consequence, the lung melts, and caverns are formed.
2. Lobular shape, or lobulitis. This is a complication of already existing tuberculosis. Unlike the previous one, it affects several parts, causing severe poisoning by the products of tissue decay.
3. Acinotic. It is considered as a complication of miliary( loose) tuberculosis. Despite the fact that the acinus is the smallest part of the lung, the disease is extremely difficult to tolerate, as it is usually not the single sites that are affected, but the whole parenchyma of the organ.

Epidemiology

As noted above, tuberculosis is complicated by a disease such as caseous pneumonia. The history of the disease is more than one hundred years old, and during this time people could not come up with the treatment. The antibiotics that patients are taking now will become irrelevant in ten to twenty years, because the pathogen will have time to develop resistance to this chemical attack.

The disease develops rapidly, the first symptoms appear fairly quickly after infection. Toxins, which produce bacteria, adversely affect the immune system, weakening it. The main contingent, subject to caseous pneumonia, are socially disadvantaged people. And not only because of the lack of basic hygiene, poor nutrition and living conditions, but also because of the refusal to treat the underlying pathology.

Development of the disease

Because of the rapid division and growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the lungs, general and local immunity is suppressed. Microorganisms produce enzymes that act toxicly on cellular immunity, triggering the process of apoptosis( programmed cell death).Thus, after the accumulation of a certain critical mass of bacteria, the protective mechanisms of the human body begin to malfunction. A significant prevalence of the pathogen in internal organs and toxicity of drugs lead to a decrease in the function of the liver, adrenal gland, cardiac muscle dystrophy and damage to the nervous system.

Locally, against the background of a decrease in immunity, necrotic processes are observed in the pulmonary parenchyma, multiple foci of inflammation with curdled masses inside. Gradually, they dissolve by their own enzymes of the body, and in their place appear caverns( cavities).

Symptoms of

The clinical course of caseous pneumonia may have several scenarios:

1. Pneumonic, ie similar to classical pneumonia - high fever( up to forty degrees), chills, wet cough, chest pain, pronounced dyspnea.
2. Flu-like - catarrhal phenomena( runny nose, lachrymation, laryngeal edema) predominate over intoxication. There is a slight fever, there may be a cough.
3. Sepsis - very high temperature( up to forty-forty-one degrees), intoxication, migraine, cough absent.

At first, no anxiety symptoms are observed. A slight dry cough, a rise in temperature at night, loss of appetite. They can last long enough until the cough from the dry goes into the wet one, and a viscous greenish sputum appears. At this point, the temperature is already dropping, and respiratory failure, on the contrary, is increasing. The doctor may suspect that the patient has caseous pneumonia. Symptoms are nonspecific, but in conjunction with the analysis and anamnesis of life, the diagnosis becomes clear.

Diagnosis

In addition to collecting a history of the disease and anamnesis of life, the doctor must carefully examine the person, possibly lapad it, listen to breathing. But in order to make sure that his assumptions are correct, the doctor directs the patient to laboratory and instrumental examinations:

1. Chest X-ray. Phthisiatricians have discovered the characteristic signs that are inherent in such a disease as caseous pneumonia. The photo of the lung picture, presented above, allows you to see multiple foci of melting the tissue of the organ.
2. Mantoux test, or a diaskintest. A simple and relatively quick way to detect the presence of antituberculous immunity. But he does not give a one-hundred percent guarantee of the development of the disease, and can be either false-positive or false-negative. Sputum microscopy. The patient is asked to collect sputum for three days in a sterile jar. Then she is taken to a laboratory where she is placed in a special medium of Levenshtein-Jensen, containing a lot of nutrients necessary for the growth of bacteria. And only after a week it will be known whether the person selects Koch's wand or not.
3. It is compulsory to conduct standard tests for clinical diagnosis: general blood analysis, urine, blood biochemistry, blood sugar, feces for egg egg.

Differential diagnosis of

First and foremost, the physician must ensure that the patient is indeed caseous pneumonia. Differential diagnosis in this case helps to eliminate diseases that are clinically very similar to the pathology we are considering. And in the first row is the usual croup, or pleuropneumonia. The only difference is in the nature of the necrotic masses and in the pathogen. The rest of the parameters are gatherings.

The second hypothesis may be a mild infarction. But it is enough to make an angiogram to exclude such variant of development of events. In addition, the patient should have a history of either trauma, or atherosclerosis, or the introduction of air and / or oily solutions into the bloodstream.

The third disease with which it is worth comparing is gangrene of the lung. In the process of development of this pathology there is a fever, severe intoxication, but there will be no cough and sputum.

Treatment of

After the diagnosis of "caseous pneumonia" is diagnosed, treatment is started immediately. A person is transferred to a special phthisiatric hospital, where there is an opportunity to observe a suitable bed rest and diet.

First, the doctor is engaged in the management of an acute condition, whether it be a toxic shock or respiratory failure. For this, the patient is given infusions of sorbents and diuretics, and plasmapheresis is performed. Then comes the turn of active therapy, when antibiotics, antihypoxants, anticoagulants, hormones, interferon enter the battle. Specific therapy is the use of antibiotic regimens designed specifically for mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Forecast

Caseous pneumonia is hard enough to treat, so for life and health the consequences will most likely be irreversible. Perhaps even complete destruction of the lung, which inevitably leads to respiratory failure.

Recommendations given by phthisiatricians to people with an identified Koch's stick are that you should not start a disease. It is necessary to start treatment on time and go through it completely, but because of low socialization of patients, as well as their living conditions, caseous pneumonia remains a frequent complication of tuberculosis. This is an epidemic, with which doctors in our day practically can not cope.