Identifying children with pneumonia in the emergency department

Clin Pediatr (Phila). 2005 Jun;44(5):427-35. doi: 10.1177/000992280504400508.

Abstract

Emergency physicians need to clinically differentiate children with and without radiographic evidence of pneumonia. In this prospective cohort study of 510 patients 2 to 59 months of age presenting with symptoms of lower respiratory tract infection, 100% were evaluated with chest radiography and 44 (8.6%) had pneumonia on chest radiography. With use of multivariate analysis, the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of the clinical findings significantly associated with focal infiltrates were age older than 12 months (AOR 1.4, CI 1.1-1.9), RR 50 or greater (AOR 3.5, CI 1.6-7.5), oxygen saturation 96% or less (AOR 4.6, CI 2.3-9.2), and nasal flaring (AOR 2.2 CI 1.2-4.0) in patients 12 months of age or younger. The combination of age older than 12 months, RR 50 or greater, oxygen saturation 96% or less, and in children under age 12 months, nasal flaring, can be used in determining which young children with lower respiratory tract infection symptoms have radiographic pneumonia.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Age Distribution
  • Ambulatory Care / methods*
  • Blood Chemical Analysis
  • Child, Preschool
  • Clinical Competence*
  • Cohort Studies
  • Confidence Intervals
  • Diagnosis, Differential
  • Emergency Service, Hospital
  • Female
  • Fever / diagnosis
  • Heart Rate / physiology
  • Humans
  • Incidence
  • Infant
  • Male
  • Multivariate Analysis
  • Odds Ratio
  • Oxygen Consumption / physiology
  • Pneumonia / diagnostic imaging*
  • Pneumonia / drug therapy
  • Pneumonia / epidemiology
  • Prospective Studies
  • Radiography, Thoracic*
  • Respiratory Tract Infections / diagnostic imaging*
  • Respiratory Tract Infections / drug therapy
  • Respiratory Tract Infections / epidemiology
  • Risk Assessment
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Sex Distribution
  • United States