Pneumonia

Pediatric Pulmonology publishes original research, reviews, and case reports related to a wide range of children's respiratory disorders. We here summarize the past year's publications in our major topic areas, in the context of selected literature in these areas from other journals relevant to our discipline. This review (Part 3 of a 5-part series) covers selected articles on asthma, physiology/lung function testing, and respiratory infections.

RATIONALE: Laboratory and clinical evidence suggests synergy between rhinoviruses and Streptococcus pneumoniae in the pathogenesis of respiratory tract infections. However, it is unclear whether rhinoviruses promote pneumococcal acquisition and transmission. OBJECTIVES: To describe the impact of rhinovirus infection on the acquisition and transmission of pneumococci within families with children. METHODS: We investigated 29 families with at least two children...

BACKGROUND: Saline fluid nebulization is highly recommend to combat the complications following tracheostomy, yet the understandings on the role of osmolality in saline solution for nebulization remain unclear. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the biological changes in the early stage after tracheostomy, to verify the efficacy of saline fluid nebulization and explore the potential role of osmolality of saline nebulization after tracheostomy. METHODS: Sprague-Dawley rats undergone tracheostomy were taken for study model, the sputum viscosity was detected by rotational viscometer, the expressions of TNF-α, AQP4 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid were assessed by western blot analysis, and the histological changes in endothelium were evaluated by HE staining and scanning electron microscopy (SEM)...

Despite improvements in the management of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), morbidity and mortality are still high, especially in patients with more severe disease. Early and appropriate antibiotics remain the cornerstone in the treatment of CAP. However, two aspects seem to contribute to a worse outcome: an uncontrolled inflammatory reaction and an inadequate immune response. Adjuvant treatments, such as corticosteroids and intravenous immunoglobulins, have been proposed to counterbalance these effects. The use of corticosteroids in patients with severe CAP and a strong inflammatory reaction can reduce the time to clinical stability, the risk of treatment failure, and the risk of progression to acute respiratory distress syndrome...

BACKGROUND: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major public health burden worldwide. We aimed to review the current literature on the incidence and mortality of severe RSV in children globally. METHODS: Systematic literature review and meta-analysis of published data from 2000 onwards, reporting on burden of acute respiratory infection (ARI) due to RSV in children. Main outcomes were hospitalization for severe RSV-ARI and death. RESULTS: Five thousand two hundred and seventy-four references were identified...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of two airway clearance techniques (ACT's) in children <24 months hospitalized with mild to moderate bronchiolitis. DESIGN: One hundred and three children were randomly allocated to receive one 20-min session daily, either assisted autogenic drainage (AAD), intrapulmonary percussive ventilation (IPV), or bouncing (B) (control group), ninety-three finished the study. OUTCOME MEASURES: Mean time to recovery in days was our primary outcome measure...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

The advent of PCR has improved the identification of viruses in patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). Several studies have used PCR to establish the importance of viruses in the aetiology of CAP.We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of the studies that reported the proportion of viral infection detected via PCR in patients with CAP. We excluded studies with paediatric populations. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients with viral infection. The secondary outcome was short-term mortality...

BACKGROUND: Non-immediate reactions to beta-lactam antibiotics (BL) occur more than one hour after drug administration, and the most common manifestations are maculopapular exanthemas and delayed-appearing urticaria and/or angioedema. Infections can lead to skin eruptions and mimic drug hypersensitivity reactions (DHR), if a drug is taken at the same time. The most of children are labeled as 'drug allergic' after considering only the clinical history. OBJECTIVE: To diagnose/detect a hypersensitivity or an infection which mimic DHR in children with non-immediate reactions to BL METHODS: A prospective survey was conducted in a group of 1026 children with histories of non-immediate reactions to BL by performing patch tests, skin tests, and in case of negative results, drug provocation tests (DPTs)...

INTRODUCTION: In contrast to adults, coccidioidomycosis is a rare disease in infants and the mechanisms of disease acquisition are not well described in infants. The purpose of this study was to describe the clinical presentation, treatment, and outcome of pulmonary coccidioidomycosis in infants in an endemic area. METHODS: We performed a retrospective observational study of all patients less than 12 months of age admitted to a tertiary free standing children's hospital from 2003-2012 diagnosed with coccidioidomycosis...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

OBJECTIVE: Do newborns, children and adolescents up to 19 years have lower mortality rates, lower morbidity and shorter length of stay in health facilities where pulse oximeters are used to inform diagnosis and treatment (excluding surgical care) compared with health facilities where pulse oximeters are not used? DESIGN: Studies were obtained for this systematic literature review by systematically searching the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, Cochrane, Medion, PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Global Health, CINAHL, WHO Global Health Library, international health organisation and NGO websites, and study references...

AIM: Procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein (CRP) are biomarkers of bacterial infection with distinct clinical qualities. This study aimed to determine the occurrence and significance of discrepancies in plasma PCT and CRP levels in hospitalised children. METHODS: This was a single centre, retrospective analysis of simultaneous PCT and CRP measurements. Clinical characteristics, microbiological findings and diagnoses were compared between cases in which only PCT or CRP levels were elevated...

BACKGROUND: With increasing survival of patients with more severe forms of congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) and risk of long-term respiratory morbidity, studies on lung morphology are needed. We used hyperpolarised (3) He MRI and anatomical (1) H MRI in a cohort of young adult CDH patients to image regional lung ventilation and microstructure, focusing on morphological and micro-structural (alveolar) abnormalities. METHODS: Nine patients with left-sided CDH, born 1975-1993, were studied...

BACKGROUND: Pneumonia is one of the most common serious infections, causing two million deaths annually among young children in low-income countries. In high-income countries pneumonia is most significantly a problem of the elderly. OBJECTIVES: To assess the prophylactic and therapeutic effects of vitamin C on pneumonia. SEARCH METHODS: We searched CENTRAL 2013, Issue 3, MEDLINE (1950 to March week 4, 2013), EMBASE (1974 to April 2013) and Web of Science (1955 to April 2013)...

INTRODUCTION: The 2011 national guidelines for the management of childhood community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) recommended narrow-spectrum antibiotics (eg, ampicillin) for most children hospitalized with CAP. We assessed the impact of these guidelines on antibiotic prescribing at 3 children's hospitals. METHODS: Children hospitalized with clinical and radiographic CAP were enrolled from January 1, 2010, through June 30, 2012, at 3 hospitals in Tennessee and Utah as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Etiology of Pneumonia in the Community study...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.