PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - El-Radhi, A Sahib
AU  - Barry, William
AU  - Patel, Swatee
TI  - Association of fever and severe clinical course in bronchiolitis
AID  - 10.1136/adc.81.3.231
DP  - 1999 Sep 01
TA  - Archives of Disease in Childhood
PG  - 231--234
VI  - 81
IP  - 3
4099  - http://adc.bmj.com/content/81/3/231.short
4100  - http://adc.bmj.com/content/81/3/231.full
SO  - Arch Dis Child1999 Sep 01; 81
AB  - Little attention has been given to the relation between fever and the severity of bronchiolitis. Therefore, the relation between fever and the clinical course of 90 infants (59 boys, 31 girls) hospitalised during one season with bronchiolitis was studied prospectively. Fever (defined as a single recording > 38.0°C or two successive recording > 37.8°C) was present in 28 infants. These infants were older (mean age, 5.3 v 4.0 months), had a longer mean hospital stay (4.2 v2.7 days), and a more severe clinical course (71.0%v 29.0%) than those infants without fever. Radiological abnormalities (collapse/consolidation) were found in 60.7% of the febrile group compared with 14.8% of the afebrile infants. These results suggest that monitoring of body temperature is important in bronchiolitis and that fever is likely to be associated with a more severe clinical course and radiological abnormalities.