C-reactive protein and radiographic findings of lower respiratory tract infection in infants.
Twomey, Maria; Fleming, Hannah; Moloney, Fiachra; Murphy, Kevin P.; Crush, Lee; O'Neill, Siobhán B.; Flanagan, Oisin; Bogue, Conor O.; O'Connor, Owen J.; Maher, Michael M.
Date:
2017-04-28
Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved. This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Citation:
Twomey, M., Fleming, H., Moloney, F., Murphy, K. P., Crush, L., O’Neill, S. B., Flanagan, O., James, K., Bogue, C., O’Connor, O. J. and Maher, M. M. (2017) ‘C-reactive protein and radiographic findings of lower respiratory tract infection in infants’, World Journal of Radiology: WJR, 9(4) pp. 206-211. doi:10.4329/wjr.v9.i4.206
Abstract:
AIM: To evaluate the association between C-reactive protein (CRP) and radiological evidence of lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) in infants. METHODS: All patients aged less than 4 years who presented with suspected lower respiratory tract infection, who received a peri-presentation chest radiograph and CRP blood measurement over an 18-mo period were included in the study. Age, gender, source of referral, CRP, white cell count, neutrophil count along with the patients’ symptoms and radiologist’s report were recorded. RESULTS: Three hundred and eleven patients met the inclusion criteria. Abnormal chest radiographs were more common in patients with elevated CRP levels (P < 0.01). Radiologic signs of LRTI were identified in 73.7% of chest radiographs when a patient had a CRP level between 50-99 mg/L. CRP levels were a better predictor of positive chest radiograph findings for those aged greater than I year compared to those 1 year or less. CONCLUSION: CRP may be used in patients with suspected LRTI diagnosis to select those who are likely to have positive findings on chest radiograph, thus reducing unnecessary chest radiographs. Core tip: Abnormal chest radiograph findings are significantly more common in patients with elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) levels. Young children are most likely to have abnormal chest radiograph findings if they have all three of the following; a CRP level of 50-99 mg/L, respiratory symptoms and if they are aged greater than 1 year.
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved. This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/