A study conducted by scientists from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center found that patients who had been ill with non-hospital pneumonia, the risk of sudden death within the next 5 years is higher than in the population. Scientists have identified a factor that significantly affects mortality after a history of pneumonia.

For 6 years, a group of patients who underwent pneumonia 90 days before the study. An obligatory condition was also the absence of HIV infection. Already in the course of the work, factors contributing to an increased risk of death are age, overweight, co-morbidities, hospitalization, male gender and education below the college level. The severity of pneumonia is not associated with an increased risk of death. In fact, in patients with less severe fever, the risk of death in the long-term period is higher than in severely febrile patients. One-third of patients who underwent pneumonia died during the next 6 years. Previous studies were less extensive and did not take into account the difference between the mortality from pneumonia in the early and late period.

It is logical that the presence of concomitant diseases explains the increased risk of death, but, according to some studies, it's not just that. Unfortunately, many factors that increase the risk of death in a remote period are due to the internal environment of the body, which can not be changed with the help of existing methods of influence.

Some factors that are effective in controlling acute pneumonia are useless in the case of a protracted process. For example, in some patients, the activity of the inflammatory process in response to infection is more pronounced. In the case of an acute process, such properties of the body will be very useful. However, they will contribute to exacerbation of long-term processes, including atherosclerosis, the role of inflammation in which is already strong and not contested.

medicus. en.