title: Q fever in children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe clinical profiles of Q fever in children.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Tertiary teaching hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirteen children aged 2 to 14 years, with a mean +/- SD age of 9.6 +/- 3.6 years.
  
  
  METHODS
  Review of the medical records of all children with Q fever admitted from 1986 to 1990. The diagnosis was made by detection of phase II antibodies to Coxiella burnetii by the complement fixation test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Clinical profiles consisted of a self-limited illness characterized by high fever (mean +/- SD, 39.9 degrees C +/- 0.66 degrees C) of 5 to 10 days' duration (mean +/- SD, 7.4 +/- 1.6 days), constitutional symptoms, and mild liver dysfunction. Eleven patients had gastrointestinal manifestations (vomiting and/or abdominal pain). Respiratory symptoms were not prominent. Most patients had normal or low white blood cell counts, and seven showed a relative increase of band forms. Their erythrocyte sedimentation rates ranged from 8 to 23 mm/h. All patients did well without specific therapy for C burnetii.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In children with the symptoms described above, tests to detect antibodies to C burnetii should be performed.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Pediatriá, Hospital 12 de Octubre, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ruiz-Contreras
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: González Montero
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Ramos Amador
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Giancaspro Corradi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Scarpellini Vera
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001799:Blood Sedimentation; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003168:Complement Fixation Tests; D005260:Female; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008111:Liver Function Tests; D008297:Male; D011778:Q Fever / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology