Recommendation for not performing blood cultures in immunocompetent patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP)
| Previous antibiotic treatment |
| Previous pneumococcal vaccination |
| No intensive care unit admission |
| Absence of pleuritic pain |
| C-reactive protein <21.6 mg·dL−1 |
The risk of having bacteraemia with one, two, three, four or five factors is 19%, 11%, 3%, 2% and 2%, respectively. The risk of having bacteraemia (after excluding previous pneumococcal vaccination) with one, two, three or four factors is 19%, 10%, 4% and 3%, respectively. Previous antibiotic treatment refers to if patients received antibiotics any time during the 2 weeks prior to hospital admission for CAP. Pneumococcal vaccination refers to the 23-valent polysaccharide pneumococcal vaccine (PPV23), if the patient received a vaccine in the last 5 years. Serotypes covered by PPV23 have shifted and now the indicated vaccine is the conjugated 13 valent.