Volume 24, Issue 103, May - June, 2020

Predicting the severity of community-acquired pneumonia in children using non-invasive diagnostic tools

Olena Koloskova¹, Tetiana Bilous¹, Lorina Іvanova¹, Olena Korotun¹, Tetiana Shchudrova^2♦, Mykhailo Hnatiuk³, Oksana Kukhta³, Volodymyr Bilous⁴

¹Department of Pediatrics and Children Infectious Diseases, Higher State Educational Establishment of Ukraine, Bukovinian State Medical University, Chernivtsi, Ukraine
²Department of Pharmacology, Higher State Educational Establishment of Ukraine, Bukovinian State Medical University
³Municipal Medical Establishment “Chernivtsi Regional Children's Clinical Hospital”, Chernivtsi, Ukraine
⁴Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Chernivtsi, Ukraine

^♦Corresponding author
Department of Pharmacology, Higher State Educational Establishment of Ukraine, Bukovinian State Medical University, Teatralna sq., 2, 58002, Chernivtsi, Ukraine Email: tshchudrova@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

The research aimed to optimize predicting severity of community-acquired pneumonia in children through development, introduction and evaluation prognostic value of a modified complex scoring scale, which includes clinical signs, instrumental data, and indicators of the biochemical profile of the exhaled breath condensate. The study involved 70 pediatric inpatients with community-acquired pneumonia. Based on the results of the stratification using the modified complex scoring scale, two clinical comparison groups of patients with the low (group I) and moderate (group II) risk of severe pneumonia were formed. At the start of hospital treatment children with the moderate risk of severe pneumonia had prolonged febrile fever, productive cough and significantly more pronounced respiratory failure compared to patients from the I group. Examination of the exhaled breath condensate revealed a decrease in the total protein content, an increase in protein oxidation products and higher proteolytic activity in children from the II group, reflecting the higher intensity of the inflammation in the pulmonary parenchyma due to the development of oxidative stress and, consequently, higher risk of severe pneumonia.

Keywords: Pediatric pneumonia, Scoring scale, Exhaled breath condensate

Medical Science, 2020, 24(103), 989-994

PDF