When the word pneumonia is used in medical practice, it almost always refers to a syndrome caused by acute infection, usually bacterial, that is characterized by clinical and/or radiographic signs of consolidation of a part or parts of one or both lungs. The use of the term has however been greatly extended to include non-bacterial infection of the lungs caused by a wide variety of microorganisms. Pneumonitis is occasionally used as a synonym for pneumonia, particularly when inflammation of the lung has resulted from a non-infectious cause such as in chemical or radiation injury.
For practical purposes the classification of pneumonia should be both anatomical, in which the descriptive terms used communicate the extent and distribution of the process in the lung or lungs, and causal, in which the responsible microorganism is named. When, as is often initially the case, the infectious cause is not known it is useful to consider whether the pneumonia is community-acquired or nosocomial (hospital-acquired). It is also useful to consider whether the pneumonia may have resulted from pharyngeal aspiration and whether or not it is occurring in an immunocompromised host.
The anatomical terms used will indicate whether the pneumonia involves one or more entire lobes or whether the process is confined to a segment or segments. In its most confined form, pneumonia may be subsegmental. Such anatomical descriptions are in life entirely dependent upon the chest radiographic appearances which show the extent of pneumonia more accurately than can be gauged by physical examination. Early clinicians distinguished between bronchopneumonia and lobar pneumonia in pathological terms. Bronchopneumonia was regarded as a complication of bronchitis in which the inflammatory process was confined to the territory of a small or terminal bronchus and the lung lobule subtended by it, hence the alternative term lobular pneumonia. Lobar pneumonia, on the other hand, frequently occurred de novo and was characterized by an inflammatory out-pouring or exudation of fluid extending throughout most of a lobe or lobes.
pneumonia [nju:'məunjə] n. 肺炎
radiographic [,reidiəu'græfik] a. 放射照相的
radiograph n. 放射照片
consolidation [kən,sɔli'deiʃən] n. 坚实变化；巩固
nosocomial [,nɔsə'kəumiəl] a. 医院的
pharyngeal [,færin'dʒi:əl] a. 咽的
immunocompromised [,imjunəu'kɔmprəmaizd] a. 免疫受损的，免疫减弱的
host [həust] n. 宿主
lobe [ləub] n. 叶
lobar ['ləubə] a. 叶的
gauge [ɡeidʒ] v./n. 测量，估计；测量仪器
bronchopneumonia [,brɔŋkəunju:'məunjə] n. 支气管肺炎；小叶性肺炎
bronchus ['brɔŋkəs]
lobule ['lɔbju:l] n. 小叶
lobular ['lɔbjulə] a. 小叶的
subtend [səb'tend] v. 对向
de novo [,di:'nəuvəu] 从头，再
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