title: Recurrent pneumonia as warning manifestation for suspecting primary immunodeficiencies in children.
abstract: Two hundred and eight children with recurrent pneumonia were studied over a 5-year period. Among these patients we found 10 cases with primary immunodeficiency disease: 6 cases of IgA deficiency, 1 case of X-linked agammaglobulinemia, 1 case of common variable immunodeficiency, 1 case of hyper IgM syndrome, and 1 case of Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome. This study describes the clinical features of these cases and assesses the usefulness of our immunodeficiency screening protocol. In this group 6 were males; the mean age at first episode of pneumonia was 3 years (range 3 months to 18 years), and the age of diagnosis ranged between 10 months and 19 years. The average number of episodes of pneumonia in each patient was 5 (range 2 to 12), and the number of hospitalizations ranged up to 13. The etiologic agents isolated from this recurrent pneumonia were S. pneumoniae, Moraxella, adenovirus, respiratory syncytial virus, and influenza B virus. Intravenous immunoglobulin was used in four cases. Two patients had chronic pulmonary damage with bronchiectasis and interstitial pneumonia. Only one patient died (Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome) during the follow-up from an intracranial hemorrhage. We found that the screening protocol applied to patients with recurrent pneumonia is a useful tool for ruling out the primary immunodeficiency disorders.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric, School of Medicine, University of Chile, Santiago. quezadam@entelchile.net
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Quezada
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Norambuena
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bravo
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Castro-Rodriguez
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017098:IgA Deficiency / Q000150:complications; D016756:Immunoglobulins, Intravenous / Q000627:therapeutic use; D007153:Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes / Q000150:complications*; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000209:etiology*; D012008:Recurrence
chemical_list: D016756:Immunoglobulins, Intravenous