title: C-reactive protein and leukocytes do not reliably indicate severity of influenza a infection in childhood.
abstract: Influenza in children may mimic other infections leading to insufficient treatment. Determination of parameters that facilitate diagnosis and indicate severity would be useful to optimize treatment modalities. We prospectively screened 432 children for influenza infection. Forty-six children at the age of 4 weeks to 14 years (median, 18 months) with confirmed influenza A infection were analyzed. A clinical score of illness severity was calculated from the symptoms presented. To evaluate the dependency of the clinical score on C-reactive protein value, leukocyte count, age, and days of hospitalization, correlation and regression analyses were carried out. Neither the C-reactive protein values (median, 0.85 mg/dL; range, 0.2-18.6; r=0.14; p=0.35) nor the leukocyte counts (median, 7.95 G/L; range, 3.5-17.6; r=-0.14, p=0.34) correlated significantly with the clinical score of influenza severity. Thus, in daily clinical practice, C-reactive protein and leukocytes seem to be insufficient parameters to describe the clinical severity of influenza A infection in children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Edelbauer
authors.forename: Reinhard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Würzner
authors.forename: Beate
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jahn
authors.forename: Lothar Bernd
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Zimmerhackl
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000032:analysis*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology; D007902:Length of Stay; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
chemical_list: D002097:C-Reactive Protein