Cover letter
Daisy Ochoa
TELA
The subject of my TELA is to inform pneumonia patients and their love ones
about the diagnosis of pneumonia. My expectations of my audience will be to gain
knowledge on how important chest x-rays are in the diagnosis. Their expectations
from me would be to inform them about it and to hopefully get pneumonia patients
to realize how important a chest x-ray can help save a life. They will realize that
losing someone due to pneumonia can be prevented by a chest x-ray. I want to
emphasize the importance of a chest x-ray and how that contributes to their well
being.
My audience will best understand this subject with more interest if they have
experienced pneumonia or know someone who has it. From my TELA, the audience
will gain knowledge on the symptoms, the treatment and the causes pneumonia.
After giving my audience a background on pneumonia, I get into the radiological
view of x-rays and explain to the audience how the radiologists interpret them.
Adaptive techniques in my TELA are used to help my audience understand this point
of view. Such adaptions that are used are definition, compare and contrast
examples, and incorporated scenarios. In order to give my audience an idea of what
kind of infection pneumonia is, I brought up a another type of infection that occurs
frequently and that most people are familiar with, the common cold/ flu. Pointing
out that the symptoms of pneumonia are very similar to this common sickness helps
give the audience more of an understanding of what pneumonia is like. Even though
the symptoms are similar, the treatment for the cold/flu and pneumonia is different.
I cover the treatment and how a treatment cannot be determined without the result
of a chest x-ray examined first. Various treatments exist depending on the type of
pneumonia the person has. It all goes back to what type of organism caused it.
Treatments for infections that are caused by bacteria exist but for other type of
causes such as viral and fungal are still in the search of providing the optimal
treatment. Research in providing the optimal radiographs are also in the process of
research, where researchers are working on providing a better way to interpret xrays in order to minimize misinterpretations.
My audience will get a good understanding on the subject of x-rays and
pneumonia. They will gain awareness in that it is a serious infection in which it can
lead to death if it is not treated. Prevention and treatment will be acknowledged and
the audience will be informed with the research being done on how to optimize
radiographs. Overall my TELA will help inform my audience that radiographs helps
pneumonia patients to live a healthier life.
Radiologist contribute in the diagnostic of pneumonia, through the
interpretation of chest x-rays.
In the United States, approximately 40,000 to 70,000 people die each year from
pneumonia; one of top leading causes of death. Pneumonia is the infection of the lungs
where a foreign substance or microorganism starts to invade an area and rapidly multiply
to grow. The most common way to detect if someone has pneumonia is through a chest xray (CXR), or radiograph. About 65 Radiographs were collected to compare the different
infected areas; results demonstrated that approximately 55 cases had infections in the
upper respiratory part of the lungs. All cases with the diagnostic code of pneumonia
underwent treatment, although the type of treatment is selected once the origin of
infection is identified.
There are several types of pneumonia but the one with the highest hospital
admission rate is community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), which is when people get
infected in or from the community. Another type of pneumonia that occurs less often but
is reported to be the second most common is hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP). HAP
occurs when someone gets infected from a hospital setting, such as during a hospital stay
or visiting patients. The main difference between defining CAP and HAP is the location
in where the infection originated. Even if it we knew where the infection originated from,
we will still have to identify what type of microorganism through the methods of
diagnosing pneumonia.
The first step in diagnosing whether a lung infection is truly pneumonia is by
listening to the rhythm of the breathing with a stethoscope. The rhythm of the air in the
lungs as someone is exhaling and inhaling should sound smoothly and tranquil for a
healthy individual whereas for an infected person the breathing patterns would sound
bubbly or crackly. These abnormal sounds are classified as rales. Rales and along with
other symptoms such coughing, chills, muscle aches, fever, sneezing, sore throat,
headache, and shortness of breath are all signs of possible pneumonia. Researchers
reviewed the treatments done to past and deceased patient documentation and discovered
many chest x-rays and measurements of symptoms that were recorded. Documentation
demonstrated high levels of dry cough pain and fever in the majority of all patients
diagnose with pneumonia before they passed away, along with files of chest x-rays.
Patients with a weaker immune system makes it easier for foreign invaders to infection an
area and grow due to the absence of a strong immune system.
Exposure to foreign substances such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi can lead to
pneumonia. The most common type of bacteria to cause pneumonia is Steptococcus
pneumoniae; according to the records found on the patient’s documentation, this
bacterium tends to cause infections in the upper areas of the respiratory system. In the
previously discussed cases of pneumonia, Steptococcus pneumoniae is responsible for a
least 10% of the death cases. But before any antibiotics are prescribed to a suspected
pneumonia individual, there has to be a confirmation that the infection is indeed
pneumonia.
The most common way to confirm pneumonia is by getting a chest x-ray; it
provides a good approximation on how bad the infection has grown. The image that
reflects the internal structures in which structures with higher density will be displayed as
white and structures with a lower density will be black, and grey if in between. For
example, bone, which has a higher density, will come out as white and air will come out
as black on the x-ray image. A normal lung x-ray image results in depicting black for the
air and white rib bones; however, if the radiograph shows random unclear white cloudy
areas then it could be classified as pneumonia. Such study was performed to compare the
use of chest x-rays and computed tomography (CT) scans to conclude which gave better
results of an image with a patient who had the diagnosis code for pneumonia.
Researchers analyzed data that consisted of total of 1057 records with the diagnosis code
for pneumonia from patients of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville,
TN. Patients were divided into two groups, where one group underwent a CT scan and
the other group underwent a chest x-ray (CXR). Results indicated that the images were
sufficient to say that both did give off results but whether to know which of the two was
better is still out for further research. CXR and CT both were useful in diagnosing the
patients; further research is needed where patients undergo both a CXR and a CT in order
to fully be able to complete the diagnosis.
Treatment for pneumonia varies depending on the results of the diagnosis. If the
cause is due to a bacterial infection, antibiotics like penicillin are prescribed. Antibiotics
kill bacterial cultures to stop it from growing any further in the lungs. Although, if it’s a
viral infection, antibiotics will have no effect since they do not work on viruses. Instead,
plenty of bed rest and nourishments is needed to help strengthen the immune system and
fight off the infection. Vaccinations are suggested after getting better, since it’s a good
way to prevent pneumonia. Overall, CXR and CT scans are the best way to diagnose
pneumonia, but if further identification is needed to confirm the type of infection, then
phlegm or blood samples are sent to the lab for further testing. Based on the results of the
lab test, if it is a bacterial type infection, antibiotics are prescribed but if it is a viral type
of infection then recovery of the immune system is recommended.