TY -的T1是< em >肺炎衣原体< / em >important pathogen in patients with community-acquired pneumonia? JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J SP - 741 LP - 742 DO - 10.1183/09031936.03.00023003 VL - 21 IS - 5 AU - Ewig, S. AU - Torres, A. Y1 - 2003/05/01 UR - //www.qdcxjkg.com/content/21/5/741.abstract N2 - Chlamydia pneumoniae has been established as a respiratory pathogen since 1986, when the association of this pathogen with respiratory infections was demonstrated by culture in a study of seroconverting patients in Seattle, USA, in 1984 1. Since then, the majority of studies evaluating the aetiology of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) have reported the occurrence of C. pneumoniae in ∼10–20% of patients 2–8. Current guidelines published by the American Thoracic Society (ATS) 9, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) 10, the Canadian Infectious Diseases Society, the Canadian Thoracic Society 11, the European Respiratory Society 12 and the British Thoracic Society (BTS) 13 all agree that C. pneumoniae is an important pathogen that should be covered when targeting empirical initial antimicrobial treatment. Obviously, the variation of incidence rates across these studies is not only due to differences in the populations and geographical areas studied but also to inconsistencies in the methodologies used to establish acute C. pneumoniae infections. Whereas most studies applied serological methods, the criteria of seropositivity differed and only a minority of studies also included culture and/or molecular methods. To make things even more complicated, there is no generally accepted technique to firmly diagnose acute C. pneumoniae infection. Whereas complement fixation is only genus- and not species-specific, microimmunofluorescence is difficult to perform, has an important subjective element with regard to reading and remains open to diverse interpretations of seropositivity 14. Moreover, seropositivity is not irrefutably diagnostic of acute infection as positive serological tests were also found to occur in asymptomatic individuals in up to 20% … ER -