RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Association of fever and severe clinical course in bronchiolitis
JF Archives of Disease in Childhood
JO Arch Dis Child
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
SP 231
OP 234
DO 10.1136/adc.81.3.231
VO 81
IS 3
A1 El-Radhi, A Sahib
A1 Barry, William
A1 Patel, Swatee
YR 1999
UL http://adc.bmj.com/content/81/3/231.abstract
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.