Signs and Symptoms
Usually the atypical causes also involve atypical symptoms:
- No responding on common antibiotics as sulfonamide and beta-lactams like penicillin.
- No signs and symptoms of lobar consolidation, meaning that the infection is restricted to small areas, rather than involving a whole lobe. As the disease progresses, however, the look can tend to lobar pneumonia.
- Absence of leukocytosis.
- Extrapulmonary symptoms, related to the causing organism.
- Moderate amount of sputum, or no sputum at all (i.e. non-productive).
- Lack of alveolar exudate.
- Despite general symptoms and problems with the upper respiratory tract (such as high fever, headache, a dry irritating cough followed later by a productive cough with radiographs showing consolidation), there are in general few physical signs. The patient looks better than the symptoms suggest.
Read more about this topic: Atypical Pneumonia
Famous quotes containing the words signs and/or symptoms:
“Young children scare easily—a tough tone, a sharp reprimand, an exasperated glance, a peeved scowl will do it. Little signs of rejection—you don’t have to hit young children to hurt them—cut very deeply.”
—James L. Hymes, Jr. (20th century)
“Murderous desire, hatred, distrust are nowadays the accompanying signs of physical illness: so thoroughly have we embodied our moral prejudices.—Perhaps cowardice and pity appear as symptoms of illness in savage ages. Perhaps even virtues might be symptoms.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)