There are two kinds of treatment for pneumonia; the hospital treatment (where you get treated by doctors) and the home treatment (where you get treated with home remedies). We will take a look at some of the treatments for pneumonia and how soon or late one can recover from the illness.
Diagnosis
There are several ways to diagnose pneumonia:
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Physical examination
- Auscultation- Bronchial breath sounds or fine cracks over the affected area
- Pleural friction rub – an adventitious breath sound heard during auscultation. The sound is caused by the movement of inflamed and roughened pleural surfaces.
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Chest X-rays often lag behind the clinical presentation. The X-ray will show decreased lung expansion and patchy opacity on the affected side with ill-defined margins.
- usually done to confirm the diagnosis
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Sputum samples and blood tests
- done to diagnose the type of pneumonia that is present
- sputum test is done to determine whether it is a fungal or bacterial infection
- blood test is done to examine the White Blood Cell count of the involved patient
- this can be used to indicate the severity of pneumonia, as well as to determine whether it is a viral or bacterial infection.
- a bacterial infection would result in a blood count that has an increased amount of neutrophils
- a blood count that has an increased amount of lymphocytes would indicate a viral infection.
- Increased CRP. [1]