Pulmonary Emergencies Practice Test

Pneumonia presents when infection settles in the lung parenchyma, so you see fever and a productive cough with sputum, along with difficulty breathing and pleuritic chest pain from inflammation near the pleura. The body’s response often makes the person appear ill and may bring rigors. On exam, the infected area of the lung becomes consolidated, which dampens the normal air-filled sounds and produces dullness to percussion. You’ll commonly hear crackles and may have increased tactile fremitus over the affected lobe. This combination of systemic illness, productive sputum, pleuritic pain, and focal dullness points to pneumonia rather than other possibilities.

Pulmonary embolism can cause sudden dyspnea and pleuritic pain and may spike a fever, but it usually lacks a productive sputum with focal lung consolidation. Pleural effusion can cause dullness to percussion, yet it typically shows reduced breath sounds and decreased fremitus over the effusion rather than the crackles and consolidative signs of pneumonia. Acute bronchitis features a prominent cough and sometimes wheezing but often lacks focal chest findings of consolidation and the same pattern of fever and ill appearance.