Respiratory disease
Case 5: A Patient with Fever and Dry Cough
CASE
A 45‐year‐old man presents to the emergency department with a history of fever and dry cough over 3 days. On the day of presentation he has developed sharp, right‐sided chest pain on inspiration. Prior to this he was completely well with no background medical problems. He has never smoked.
On examination he looks flushed but well. His respiratory rate is 20 breaths/min, blood pressure 120/65 mmHg, pulse 100 beats/min and regular, temperature 38.4°C and oxygen saturation 95% breathing room air. A chest X‐ray reveals lobar shadowing in the right lower lobe and blood tests reveal a white cell count of 15 × 109/L, C‐reactive protein of 50 mg/L, urea of 6.8 mmol/L and creatinine of 104 µmol/L.
QUESTION 1
Your score this session: 0 of 0
How would you treat him?