Bronchiolitis and pneumonia

Objective: the aim of this study is to detect signs and/or symptoms in patients with bronchiolitis that can be suggestive of the presence of an associated pneumonia.

Patients and methods: prospective, longitudinal study at the Children’s Universitary Hospital of the Jesus Child in Madrid in a sample of 342 children between November 2006 and March 2008. We included all the patients hospitalized with bronchiolitis under seven months of age who underwent chest radiography.

Results: mean age was 2.7 months. Rapid RSV test was positive in 226 children. Pneumonia was diagnosed in 38.42% of the patients. We measured several variables; significant results were observed in patients with pneumonia on the average value of leucocytes (13,590 cl/μl, SD 5,20), for the value of total neutrophils (7,520 cl/μl, SD 4,33) and the mean value of CRP (2.17 mg/dl, SD 3.67). Statistical significance was also obtained regarding the OR for respiratory distress, presence of fever at home, total number of neutrophils greater than 7,500 cl/μl and CRP value greater than 3 mg/dl.

Conclusions: in patients with symptoms of bronchiolitis, there is no clinical information that can suggest the presence of pneumonia. It is interesting to consider further studies in order to identify other indicators which suggest pneumonia in patients diagnosed with bronchiolitis.