title: Hypoxaemia in hospitalised under-five Nigerian children with pneumonia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hypoxaemia constitutes a possible complication of severe respiratory illness which is often under-reported in developing countries. Therefore, the current study was carried out to determine the prevalence and clinical predictors of hypoxaemia in hospitalized under-five children with pneumonia in Ilorin, Nigeria.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a descriptive cross-sectional study of 200 children aged between two months and five years with pneumonia recruited consecutively. Socio-demographic, clinical and laboratory data were obtained. The pulse oximetry measurement was recorded after a stable reading for at least one minute while the child was breathing room air. Hypoxaemia was defined as an arterial oxygen saturation of less than 90%. Data was analyzed using the SPSS 20.0 software.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The male/female ratio was 1.5:1.The prevalence of hypoxaemia in the children with pneumonia was 41.5%.Using a linear regression analysis, the clinical features that were significantly associated with hypoxaemia were restlessness, lower chest wall indrawing, bronchial breath sounds and tender hepatomegaly (p<0.05 each). Restlessness had a sensitivity of 22.9%, specificity of 91.5%, while chest wall indrawing had a sensitivity of 86.7% and specificity of 53.3%. Bronchial breath sound had a sensitivity of 16.9%, a specificity of 95.7% whereas tender hepatomegaly had a sensitivity of 48.2% and specificity of 82.9%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is a high local burden of pneumonia-associated hypoxaemia. Restlessness, chest wall indrawing, bronchial breath sounds and tender hepatomegaly could be useful in detecting pneumonia-related hypoxemia in poorly equipped health facilities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics & Child Health, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital,Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria.
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Ibraheem
authors.forename: W B
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Abdulkarim
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009549:Nigeria; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000150:complications*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015995:Prevalence