Chest x-rays are used at every step to look for pneumonia. This is the "gold standard" of diagnostics.
Pneumonia is called pneumonia. That is, part of the lung tissue is impregnated with an inflammatory fluid. Where there was air before, water appears. This can be seen on x-ray.
Bacterial pneumonia is better seen. But the viral one can also be considered.
In fact, it is not possible to reliably distinguish between bacterial and viral pneumonia on x-rays.
Why isn't computed tomography done? Because no one has ever done a CT scan for common pneumonia on such a scale.
For more than a century, doctors have diagnosed pneumonia with conventional chest x-rays. Everything is checked up and down. And computed tomography is done not so long ago.
In addition, with ordinary pneumonia, no one would have thought of doing a tomogram before. A tomogram is needed to find accumulations of pus, melted holes in the lungs, tumors and other formations. Radiologists just aren't used to looking for common pneumonia with computed tomography.
So, they bring an elderly person to the hospital with suspected pneumonia, but the X-ray does not show anything. The doctor swears and swears that there must be pneumonia, but nothing is visible in the pictures. This happens to old, weak, and dehydrated people.
We've already discussed the dehydrated old people here several times. One English student even invented jelly candies for his grandmother, 90% water. His grandmother had dementia and stopped drinking. But she loved candy. So the grandmother was able to save herself from dehydration.
In such a dehydrated grandmother, pneumonia is not visible, because there is simply not enough water to soak the lungs with inflammatory fluid. Microbes will be there, and leukocytes will be there, but there is not enough water. Therefore, the X-ray does not see anything.
In the hospital, old people quickly recover their water balance, and pneumonia becomes visible. She "blooms".
Have you heard about this?
