[Children hospitalized with acute gastroenteritis. II. No relation between clinical symptoms and causative agents isolated from feces].
OBJECTIVE
To determine if it is possible to predict a bacterial cause in children with gastroenteritis on the basis of clinical features and if the number of stool cultures can be reduced.


METHODS
Retrospective.


METHODS
The results of the stool cultures of 227 children admitted with acute gastroenteritis to the department of Paediatrics of Sint Joseph Hospital, Veldhoven, the Netherlands, in the period 1992-1996 were related by review of medical records to clinical symptoms and blood tests. The diagnostic values of the various parameters were calculated.


RESULTS
Rotavirus was identified in 40% of the faeces of the children, other viruses in 10% and bacteria in 8%. In 95% the bacterial pathogen was identified in the first stool sample. The diagnostic value of the investigated parameters was low.


CONCLUSIONS
It is not possible on the basis of clinical parameters to predict a bacterial gastroenteritis. The number of stool samples may, however, be reduced if the stools of each child with acute diarrhoea are first investigated for rotavirus. Only if this test is negative are further investigations required. The number of bacterial cultures can be limited to one stool sample.
Tjon A Ten
W E
WE
Sint Joseph Ziekenhuis, afd. Kindergeneeskunde, Veldhoven.
D000208:Acute Disease; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000821:virology*; D005260:Female; D005759:Gastroenteritis / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012400:Rotavirus Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000821:virology