Early death is an important problem associated with the management of community-acquired pneumonia. However, there is little information on the risk factors associated with it. The aim of this study was to identify the factors associated with early death in community-acquired pneumonia patients.

From January 1999 to July 2004, 1,487 adult patients with community-acquired pneumonia who were admitted to the pulmonary department via emergency center were examined. Early death was defined as those who died within 2 days of hospitalization. The clinical and laboratory aspects of the patients who died early (n=30) were compared with those of an age and gender matched control population (n=60) .

In the early death group, respiratory rate, heart rate, and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) were significant higher (p<0.05 for all), while the arterial pH, systolic pressure, and PaO₂ were significant lower (p<0.05 for all) than the control. The independent factor significantly associated with early death was tachypnea (OR, 7.049).

The importance of an early clinical assessment in emergency center with community-acquired pneumonia needs to be emphasized in order to recognize patients at risk of early death.