Discriminating inhalational anthrax from community-acquired pneumonia using chest radiograph findings and a clinical algorithm.

Background: Limiting the effects of a large-scale bioterrorist anthrax attack will require rapid and accurate detection of the earliest victims. We undertook this study to improve physicians' ability to rapidly detect inhalational anthrax victims.

Methods: We conducted a case-control study to compare chest radiograph findings from 47 patients from historical inhalational anthrax cases and 188 community-acquired pneumonia control subjects.

Clinical predictors of bioterrorism-related inhalational anthrax.

Limitation of a bioterrorist anthrax attack will require rapid and accurate recognition of the earliest victims. To identify clinical characteristics of inhalational anthrax, we compared 47 historical cases (including 11 cases of bioterrorism-related anthrax) with 376 controls with community-acquired pneumonia or influenza-like illness. Nausea, vomiting, pallor or cyanosis, diaphoresis, altered mental status, and raised haematocrit were more frequently recorded in the inhalational anthrax cases than in either the community-acquired pneumonia or influenza-like illness controls.