title: Impaired gas exchange: accuracy of defining characteristics in children with acute respiratory infection.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  to analyze the accuracy of the defining characteristics of the Impaired gas exchange nursing diagnosis in children with acute respiratory infection.
  
  
  METHODS
  open prospective cohort study conducted with 136 children monitored for a consecutive period of at least six days and not more than ten days. An instrument based on the defining characteristics of the Impaired gas exchange diagnosis and on literature addressing pulmonary assessment was used to collect data. The accuracy means of all the defining characteristics under study were computed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  the Impaired gas exchange diagnosis was present in 42.6% of the children in the first assessment. Hypoxemia was the characteristic that presented the best measures of accuracy. Abnormal breathing presented high sensitivity, while restlessness, cyanosis, and abnormal skin color showed high specificity. All the characteristics presented negative predictive values of 70% and cyanosis stood out by its high positive predictive value.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  hypoxemia was the defining characteristic that presented the best predictive ability to determine Impaired gas exchange. Studies of this nature enable nurses to minimize variability in clinical situations presented by the patient and to identify more precisely the nursing diagnosis that represents the patient's true clinical condition.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Ciências Sociais, Saúde e Tecnologia, Universidade Federal do Maranhão, Imperatriz, MA, BR.
authors.forename: Lívia Maia
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Pascoal
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Enfermagem, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, CE, BR.
authors.forename: Marcos Venícios de Oliveira
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Lopes
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, CE, BR.
authors.forename: Daniel Bruno Resende
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Chaves
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, CE, BR.
authors.forename: Beatriz Amorim
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Beltrão
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Enfermagem, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, CE, BR.
authors.forename: Viviane Martins
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.affiliation: Universidade da Integração Internacional da Lusofonia Afro-Brasileira, Redenção, CE, BR.
authors.forename: Flávia Paula Magalhães
authors.initials: FP
authors.lastname: Monteiro
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009733:Nursing Diagnosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011659:Pulmonary Gas Exchange; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*