Symptoms of pneumonia

The symptoms of pneumonia are divided into those caused by a typical pneumonia and those caused by a so-called atypical pneumonia. Typical pneumonia: A striking feature of the so-called typical pneumonia is the sudden onset of the disease symptoms with chills and high fever. In addition, there is a severe feeling of illness and poor general condition.

Patients with typical pneumonia also complain of mucous sputum (productive cough). This is often described as rusty yellow. Breathlessness is also added to the symptoms in many cases.

Sometimes the pneumonia is accompanied by a herpes infection (herpes labialis on the lip). Because of the frequent coughing, many patients also complain of lung pain or chest pain. When listening to the lungs, so-called moist rales appear, and X-rays show bright spots (shadows) on the affected area, which may indicate a lung infiltrate.

In the laboratory the inflammation values, such as the CRP value or the blood sedimentation rate are increased. Procalcitonin is also high in bacterial infections. After about one week, the fever drops.

This leads to increased cardiovascular stress. The symptoms of pneumonia are not always restricted to the lungs, but can cause further serious symptoms by spreading bacteria into the bloodstream. Atypical pneumonia: The onset of atypical pneumonia is slow and insidious.

The body temperature is usually only slightly elevated, there is usually no chills. Atypical pneumonia is accompanied not by mucous sputum but by dry irritable cough with little sputum. The general condition can also be severely impaired.

In addition, in many cases there is also respiratory distress and loss of performance. When listening to the lungs, in many cases no moist rales are heard, which makes the diagnosis very deceptive. Shadows may be seen in the X-ray image, but do not have to be.

In the laboratory, the inflammation values (CRP) are often also elevated, while the leukocytes are often within the normal range. The procalcitonin is not elevated in many cases. A classic fever loss after one week is usually not so noticeable due to the low level of fever in atypical pneumonia. Despite the sometimes slow and sometimes milder symptomatic course of the atypical pneumonia, this type of pneumonia should not be underestimated, as it can also quickly and unexpectedly lead to a septic clinical picture (blood poisoning), which can be a life-threatening condition for the patient. The symptoms of pneumonia are not always restricted to the lungs, but can cause further serious symptoms by spreading bacteria into the bloodstream.