Etiological analysis of pleural effusion in children in Beijing Children′s Hospital / 中华实用儿科临床杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the etiology of pleural effusion in hospitalized children in Beijing Children′s Hospital.Methods:Clinical information of children with pleural effusion admitted to Beijing Children′s Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University from January 2016 to December 2018 was retrospectively analyzed.According to the etiology, the children were divided into infection group (parapneumonic pleural effusion, tuberculous pleurisy and empyema) and non infection group.According to the age, the children were further divided into ≤ 3 years old, >3-7 years old and > 7 years old groups.Classification of statistics was performed, and the etiology of pleural effusion were retrospectively analyzed.Results:Among the 1 165 children with pleural effusion, 746 cases(64.0%) were infected with pleural effusion, 697 cases (697/746, 93.4%) of who were parapneumonic effusion.In patients with parapneumonic effusion, 457 cases (61.3%) had Mycoplasma pneumonia (MP) infection.Infectious pleural effusion was more common in children >7 years old(339/479 cases, 70.8%), while non-infectious pleural effusion was prevalent in children under 3 years old(188/324 cases, 58.0%). The difference was statistically significant ( χ2=96.33, P<0.05). Among the patients with non-infectious pleural effusion, 239 cases (239/419 cases, 57.0%) had multi-system diseases and 97 cases (97/419 cases, 23.2%) had malignant pleural effusion.All the 18 deaths were non-infectious pleural effusion. Conclusions:The leading reason for pleural effusion in children is infection.The most prevalent symptom is parapneumonic effusion, which is mainly caused by MP.