BACKGROUND Community Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) is the infection of lung parenchyma in an individual who has not recently been hospitalised. The mortality of CAP in hospitalised patients is 14% and those admitted in ICU increases to 20% -50%. In developing countries like India, an incidence of 20% -30% is reported as compared to 3% -4% in developed countries. The objectives of the study are: 1) To know the clinical profile of the patients admitted with pneumonia in a tertiary care hospital. 2) To triage the patients and predict the outcome using pneumonia severity index (PSI). 3) To study the correlation between PSI and ICU admission, death and mortality at 30 days and followup. 4) To compare the results like age and sex distribution, outcomes, deaths etc. with similar studies. MATERIALS AND METHODS50 patients admitted in a tertiary care centre in south India with signs and symptoms of pneumonia were included in the study. After obtaining history and examination, the patients were subjected to relevant investigations. Patients were followed up for 30 days. For statistical analysis, the Chi-square test was used. The statistical significance was set at 0.05 level and the confidence interval at 95%. The baseline parametric variables were expressed in percentages. RESULTSThe common age group affected was between 40 to 65 years of age, of which males account for 62.5%. Cough was the most common presenting symptom followed by difficulty in breathing, fever and chest pain. Culture and gram staining of sputum were positive in 30% and 50% respectively. Commonly associated comorbidities were heart failure and renal disease, diabetes mellitus being the commonest risk factor.

BACKGROUNDInfection with HIV progresses to AIDS at different rates in different individuals with a spectrum varying from rapid progression to long-term non-progression. Thus, it becomes essential to have tests which accurately assesses the stage of the disease as well as predicting the progression. The single best predictor so far used being the Plasma HIV RNA load and the CD4+ T cell count. Plasma viral load testing with its reliance on sophisticated laboratories and patented PCR kits has also been extremely challenging to scale up in resource limited settings. Hence, the need for evaluation of surrogate markers for identifying disease progression.