Clinical characteristics of human coronavirus in children with acute lower respiratory tract infection / 中华实用儿科临床杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To describe the clinical characteristics of acute lower respiratory tract infection (ALRTI)caused by human coronavirus (HCoV)in children.Methods Three thousand five hundred and three hospi-talized children diagnosed with ALRTI in Beijing Children′s Hospital from March 2007 to February 201 3 were re-viewed.Nasopharyngeal aspirate(NPA)specimen was collected from each patient.Reverse transcription (RT)-poly-merase chain reaction(PCR)methods were applied to detect common respiratory viruses including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV),rhinovirus (RV),parainfluenza virus (PIV)type 1 -4,influenza virus type A and B (IFA,IFB),adeno-virus (AdV),enterovirus (EV),HCoV,human metapneumovirus (hMPV)and human bocavirus (HBoV).Serum anti-bodies of mycoplasma and sputum bacterial culture were also detected.Only HCoV positive patients were analyzed in this study.Results Eleven of 3 503 patients were proved as HCoV -positive in NPA specimens.Of the 1 1 children,8 cases were male and 3 cases were female (2.71 .0).The median age was 3 months.The clinical symptoms of HCoV infection included cough (1 1 /1 1 cases,1 00.0%),wheezing (1 0 /1 1 cases,90.9%),fever (6 /1 1 cases,54.5%)and poor appetite (7 /1 1 cases,63.6%).Wheezing (8 /1 1 cases,72.7%)and moist rale in inspiratory phase (5 /1 1 ca-ses,45.4%)could be heard.Most patient′s chest X -ray showed bronchopneumonia.Full blood count displayed that leukocyte was in the normal range.Conclusions Respiratory tract infection with HCoV -positive will be easier to spread to ALRTI,especially in infants less than 1 year old.The symptoms include fever,cough and wheezing,but poor appetite and diarrhea can also be detected.