A normal blood count can also be a sign of pneumonia. In medical terms, a blood count is called a hematology or blood cell analysis, or a hemogram, which screens for disease by analyzing the shape and number of blood cells in the human venous blood. When pneumonia occurs in the body, it can be reflected in the blood work, most commonly in an elevated white blood cell count, also called an elevated hematocrit. However, blood tests are not required to diagnose pneumonia, and elevated blood counts are not specific for the diagnosis of pneumonia, and many pneumonias can present with normal blood counts without elevated blood counts. For example, in pneumonia caused by viral infections, the blood picture is often normal and does not cause changes in the blood count; in chronic pneumonia caused by mycoplasma and fungal infections, the blood count can be normal. Therefore, the diagnosis of pneumonia is not only based on blood tests, but also on imaging tests, which are more important than blood tests.