Can clinical symptoms or signs accurately predict hypoxemia in children with acute lower respiratory tract infections?
Article
in English
| IMSEAR
| ID: sea-12783
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
To determine clinical predictors of hypoxemia in children with acute lower respiratory tract infection (ALRI).DESIGN:
Cross-sectional study.SETTING:
Emergency department of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, a tertiary care hospital.SUBJECTS:
109 under five children, with ALRI.METHODS:
Clinical symptoms and signs were recorded. Oxygen saturation was determined by a pulse oximeter. Hypoxemia was defined as oxygen saturation less than 90%. The ability of various clinical symptoms and signs to predict the presence of hypoxemia was evaluated.RESULTS:
Twenty-eight (25.7%) children were hypoxemic. No symptoms were statistically associated with hypoxemia. Tachypnea, suprasternal indrawing, intercostal indrawing, lower chest indrawing, cyanosis, crepitations, and rhonchi were statistically significantly associated with hypoxemia. A simple model using the presence of rapid breathing (> or =80/min in children < or =3 m, > or =70/min in >3-12 m and > or =60/min in >12 m) or lower chest indrawing had a sensitivity of 78.5% and specificity of 66.7% for detecting hypoxemia. No individual clinical symptom/sign or a combination had both sufficient sensitivity and specificity to identify hypoxemia.CONCLUSION:
None of the clinical features either alone or in combination have desirable sensitivity and specificity to predict hypoxemia in children with acute lower respiratory tract infection.
Full text:
Available
Index:
IMSEAR (South-East Asia)
Main subject:
Respiratory Function Tests
/
Respiratory Tract Infections
/
Severity of Illness Index
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Oximetry
/
Chi-Square Distribution
/
Odds Ratio
/
Child
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Etiology study
/
Incidence study
/
Observational study
/
Prevalence study
/
Prognostic study
/
Risk factors
Language:
English
Year:
2004
Type:
Article
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS