[Correlation between fever and the clinical severity of acute bronchiolitis].

INTRODUCTION

The relationship between fever and the severity of acute infant bronchiolitis has been little studied, and the results of the few published studies are not concordant.

AIM: To assess the significance of fever in children aged under 1 year with acute bronchiolitis.

MATERIAL: 83 children aged between 0-1 year; hospitalized with the diagnosis of acute bronchiolitis during the winter of 2004-2005, assigned to two groups, with febrile bronchiolitis and afebrile bronchiolitis, respectively.

METHOD: The evaluation of patients using a clinical score including respiratory effort, O2 saturation, respiratory rate, and the statistical processing of results comparatively in the two study groups.

RESULTS

The mean duration of hospitalization was 5.8 days for febrile patients compared to 4.4 days for afebrile patients (p = 0.003). Infants with febrile bronchiolitis had a more severe clinical picture, evaluated by the clinical score, compared to afebrile patients (p = 0.03).

CONCLUSION

Fever associated with acute bronchiolitis in children aged 0-1 year has the significance of a higher clinical severity and prolonged evolution of the disease.