Analysis of clinical and paraclinical findings in children with community-acquired pneumonia and comorbid chronic tonsillitis

Abstract

Background. Respiratory morbidity is the most frequent cause for children consulting a doctor, accounting for about one-quarter of primary care consultations. The current research aimed to analyze the clinical and paraclinical features of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) with comorbid chronic tonsillitis in children and to assess the prognostic value of the proposed diagnostic procedures to optimize the management of patients. Materials and methods. The study was conducted at the Pulmonology and Allergology and Infectious Department of the Municipal Medical Establishment “Chernivtsi Regional Children’s Clinical Hospital”, Ukraine. Clinical group I included 20 children (mean age 9.40 ± 1.56 years) with uncomplicated community-acquired pneumonia and concomitant chronic tonsillitis, and the clinical group II consisted of 16 patients (mean age 9.60 ± 1.13 years) with CAP without concomitant pathology of the upper respiratory tract. Results. Community-acquired pneumonia in children with comorbid chronic tonsillitis is characterized by an intense proinflammatory response in the airways, which manifests itself in fever (odds ratio (OR) 6.0), malaise and fatigue (OR 14.3), persistent cough and dyspnea (OR 3.7), leukocytosis (OR 2.0), high levels of acute phase proteins (OR 4.5), activation of the oxidative protein modification according to the exhaled breath condensate examination (OR 6.0–30.0), and more frequent fungal-bacterial association according to the microbiological examination of sputum and oropharyngeal swab (OR 11.1). The obtained data suggest that parenteral antibiotic therapy was used in 20 % of patients from group I and 12.5 % from group II, while 6.3 % of children from group II received only oral antibiotics. In children with CAP and chronic tonsillitis versus comparison group, the ОR of receiving parenteral antibiotic therapy for longer than 7 days reached 10.0, and the OR of oral antibiotic therapy for longer than 5 days reached 4.0. Conclusions. The results obtained from the study show that children with CAP and comorbid chronic tonsillitis have more pronounced clinical symptoms, accompanied by paraclinical signs of inflammation that last longer during hospital treatment and require comprehensive therapy (OR 3.3) of longer duration (OR 4.0–10.0).