Usefulness of sputum gram stain for etiologic diagnosis in community-acquired pneumonia: a systematic review and meta-analysis

摘要

BackgroundImplementation of sputum Gram stain in the initial assessment of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) patients is still controversial. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the usefulness of sputum Gram stain for defining the etiologic diagnosis of CAP in adult patients.