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S Kaka

Publications and source records attributed to S Kaka.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

The clinical significance of Haemophilus influenzae and H. parainfluenzae isolated from the sputum of adult patients at an urban general hospital.

Fifty-seven patients, from whose sputum Haemophilus influenzae (49 cases) or Haemophilus parainfluenzae (8 cases) was isolated during a 7-month period, were studied. In the majority of cases there were well-defined predisposing factors to respiratory tract colonisation or infection with the isolates, in particular bronchiectasis and chronic obstructive airways disease. Colonisation of the airways, bronchopneumonia in patients with underlying lung disease, acute lobar pneumonia, and postoperative chest infections were the commonest clinical diagnoses. Primary acute lobar pneumonia with these organisms alone was uncommon. All of the H. influenzae isolates were nontypeable, and there was a wide range of biotypes of both organisms. Three H. influenzae isolates produced beta-lactamase, and there was, in general, a low incidence of resistance to a wide range of antimicrobial agents on disc susceptibility testing.

Adult

Does primary Streptococcus viridans pneumonia exist?

In 4 adult black patients admitted to an urban general hospital with community-acquired pneumonia, Streptococcus viridans alone was isolated from blood culture (first subculture), in the absence of any other positive microbiological finding. Sputum examination by Gram staining and culture in 3 cases was reported as negative. Echocardiography was performed in 3 cases and was normal, without evidence of endocarditis. The clinical course of illness in the 4 patients is described. The chest radiograph showed a segmental or subsegmental consolidation in all cases; this appeared 'mass-like' in 2 patients. Viridans streptococci may be a more important, if still uncommon, cause of community-acquired pneumonia than previously suspected. The organism should be considered as a possible cause of chest infection, particularly in patients with appropriately positive blood cultures and no other positive microbiological finding.

Adult