[Nursing-home-acquired pneumococcal pneumonia--comparison of sputum cultures with Binax NOW Streptococcus pneumoniae urinary antigen assay].

To clarify the clinical significance of Pneumococcal pneumonia in nursing-home-acquired pneumonia, we examined the positive disease rate of using sputum cultures and the Binax NOW Streptococcus pneumoniae urinary antigen assay in 154 nursing-home patients with pneumonia. These included 54 males and 100 females with a mean age of 86.2 years. Bacteriological findings for sputum culture in 130 patients showed Streptococcus pneumoniae to be cultured in 11 cases (8%). In 72 in whom the Streptococcus pneumoniae-urinary antigen test (Binax NOW) was done, the urinary-antigen-positive rate (26/72 ; 36%) was higher than the culture positive rate for S. pneumoniae. Both examinations were done in 64 patients, among whom 5 in whom S. pneumoniae was cultured also had positive results for the urinary antigen test. Almost half of those undergoing percutaneous endoscopic gastroscopy (PEG) tube nutrition had positive results for the urinary antigen test, but not all such patients had positive cultures for S. pneumoniae. Although the culture-positive rate for S. pneumoniae in sputum was low, we concluded that S. pneumoniae was frequently linked to nursing-home-acquired pneumonia, especially in "total-care" patients.