Just a quick image of left lower lobe pneumonia today:
In this image the left heart border is obscured and there is an infiltrate taking up airspace in the left lower lung. That’s it, nothin’ fancy about it.
The symptoms of pneumonia described by Hippocrates (c. 460 BC – 370 BC) (1):
Peripneumonia, and pleuritic affections, are to be thus observed: If the fever be acute, and if there be pains on either side, or in both, and if expiration be if cough be present, and the sputa expectorated be of a blond or livid color, or likewise thin, frothy, and florid, or having any other character different from the common… When pneumonia is at its height, the case is beyond remedy if he is not purged, and it is bad if he has dyspnoea, and urine that is thin and acrid, and if sweats come out about the neck and head, for such sweats are bad, as proceeding from the suffocation, rales, and the violence of the disease which is obtaining the upper hand.
Begs the question: what does “purged” mean?
Author: Russell Jones, MD
References
1. Pneumonia History. http://www.news-medical.net/health/Pneumonia-History.aspx
March 16, 2013 at 1:37 am
Just a little note: if the opacity obscures the left heart border then this suggests it is within the left upper lobe lingular rather than the lower lobe