Diagnostic Approches in Legionnaires’ Disease: A Clinical, Microbiological and Epidemiological Review on Cases Between 1995-2002

In this report, results of 183 cases, dispatched to our laboratory by suspicion of Legionnaires’ disease between February 1995 and July 2002, were interpreted for matching to the standard case definitions and outcomes. As diagnostic techniques, culture, direct fluorescence antibody assay, urinary antigen test, and serology were used according to the samples. Demographical, clinical and epidemiological characteristics were analyzed from the records of “Laboratory Request Log”. It is observed that the most of the cases (60.4%) were classified as community-acquired pneumonia. The 80.3% of these individuals came from the populations by having medium- and low socio-economic standards, that are controversial for the epidemiology of Legionnaires’ disease, were comprehended. The most preferred samples were urine (145) and the less preferred samples were from lower respiratory tract (52) for sending to the laboratory. Totally 6 (3.3%) cases were confirmed as Legionnaires’ disease based on positive urinary antigen test results. Four of these cases were reported as travel-associated Legionnaires’ disease based on their travel histories. Additionally 9 (4.1%) cases were classified as probable Legionnaires’ disease by serological findings. Since the clinical and radiological presentations of Legionnaires’ disease are not discriminative, definitive diagnosis requires application of specialized microbiology techniques. However, it seems that as the samples are sending to the laboratory to take into account some of the clinical and epidemiological characteristics is essential for using the time and sources effectively