The objective of the present study was to investigate variations in the levels of interleukin (IL)-6, procalcitonin (PCT), and C-reactive protein (CRP) in children with severe bacterial infectious diseases and to analyze the correlation between the levels of IL-6 and PCT to determine the value of combined diagnosis with IL-6 and PCT. We analyzed 126 patients admitted to Xuzhou Children's Hospital for treatment, who were divided into severe bacterial infection (observation group, n=65) and non-bacterial infection groups (control group, n=61). The levels of IL-6, PCT, and CRP were measured and compared between the two groups. Data from both groups were statistically analyzed. The levels of IL-6, PCT, and CRT in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P<0.01); in the observation group, the levels of IL-6 and PCT on the 5th and 10th day after treatment were significantly lower than those before treatment (P<0.01); PCT showed better value for diagnosing severe bacterial infections compared with IL-6 and CRP; there was a positive correlation between the levels of IL-6 and PCT in the observation group; and the sensitivity and specificity of combined diagnosis with IL-6 and PCT for severe bacterial infection was 93.84% and 96.72%, respectively, which were significantly higher than those for diagnosis with only IL-6 (P<0.01). In conclusion, IL-6 combined with PCT can serve as an indicator with high sensitivity for detection of severe bacterial infections in children, which is of great significance for the differential diagnosis of severe bacterial infections in the early stage.

The use of oxygen-driven aerosol inhalation therapy with budesonide (suspension) and terbutaline sulfate for the treatment of pediatric asthmatic bronchitis was studied. Sixty pediatric patients diagnosed with asthmatic bronchitis in Xuzhou Children's Hospital during the period comprising April 2013 to December 2015 were enrolled in the study. After randomly dividing the patients into a control (conventional dexamethasone drip) and a treatment group (inhalation of budesonide with terbutaline sulfate) of 30 patients each, the symptoms were treated using antibiotics when necessary. The results of our evaluation showed the overall effective rate of treatment in the control group was 73.33% (40% with marked improvement, 33.33% with some improvement and 26.67% with no improvement) and that in the treatment group was 96.67% (73.73% with marked improvement, 23.33% with some improvement and only 3.33% with no improvement) with a statistically significant difference (p<0.05). The pulmonary functions of all pediatric patients showed no statistically significant differences in the pulmonary function indexes between the two groups before treatment (p>0.05). However, the differences in FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC and PEF between control and treatment groups before and after treatment were statistically significant (p<0.05), with overall improvement being higher in the treatment group. Finally, the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) level in patients of the two groups improved significantly after treatment (p<0.05). The ESR and CRP level in the treatment group were improved to a higher degree than those in the control group (p<0.05). There were only minor adverse reactions in two patients in the treatment group, and the overall rate of adverse reactions was not significantly different between the two groups (p>0.05). Based on our evaluation the aerosol inhalation therapy of budesonide (suspension) with terbutaline sulfate has definite curative effects and is safe to use on pediatric asthmatic bronchitis patients. The approach is superior to the conventional dexamethasone treatment and is worth studying in larger populations for recommending it widely.