Observations in febrile children with round air space opacities.
BACKGROUND
Community-acquired pneumonia in children is rarely depicted as round opacity. The aim of the present study was therefore to describe the clinical and laboratory characteristics of round pneumonia in children.


METHODS
The clinical series consisted of 30 children aged 1-7 years (mean age, 3.4 +/- 1.8 years) who were compared to an equal number of children with segmental or lobar pneumonia aged 3-11 years (mean age, 5.5 +/- 2.7 years).


RESULTS
Round pneumonia was localized more often in the lower lobe (17/30), and the right side was more commonly affected (20/30). The same, however, was the case for the control group. The two groups were not different regarding the severity of the disease but cough was much more common in the control patients. The white blood cells were considerably higher in round pneumonia, whereas the other inflammatory indices were not significantly different. All round consolidations responded promptly to antibiotics and resolved radiographically in 8 weeks.


CONCLUSIONS
Round consolidations in febrile children associated with elevated inflammatory indices seem to be attributed to round pneumonia, which responds promptly to antibiotics without complications.
Fretzayas
Andrew
A
Third Department of Pediatrics, Athens University Medical School, Attikon University Hospital, Athens, Greece. maria-m@otenet.gr
Moustaki
Maria
M
Alexopoulou
Efthimia
E
Liapi
Olga
O
Nicolaidou
Polyxeni
P
Priftis
Konstantinos N
KN
D001799:Blood Sedimentation; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000032:analysis; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D017714:Community-Acquired Infections / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D005334:Fever / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008297:Male; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000379:methods; D019370:Observation; D018410:Pneumonia, Bacterial / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011379:Prognosis; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic; D012016:Reference Values; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
D002097:C-Reactive Protein