Usefulness of sputum gram stain for etiologic diagnosis in community-acquired pneumonia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Implementation of sputum Gram stain in the initial assessment of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) patients is still controversial. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the usefulness of sputum Gram stain for defining the etiologic diagnosis of CAP in adult patients.

Methods: We systematically searched the Medline, Embase, Science Direct, Scopus and LILACS databases for full-text articles.

Biomarkers for predicting short-term mortality in community-acquired pneumonia: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objectives: The pneumonia severity index and CURB-65 are risk assessment tools widely used in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). However, limitations in these prognostic scores have led to increasing interest in finding biomarkers that might provide additional information. To date, the role of these biomarkers has not been fully elucidated.