Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS): chest radiographic features in children

Abstract

In pediatric cases, SARS manifests with nonspecific radiographic features making radiological differentiation difficult, especially from other commonly encountered childhood respiratory viral illnesses causing airspace disease. The radiographic presentation of suspected SARS cases ranged from normal to mild perihilar peribronchial thickening. The radiographic presentations, as expected, were relatively more pronounced in the SARS probable cases.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)

“…70 Table 1 enumerates clinical presentations. 3,4,7,32,48,51,52,[71][72][73][74][75] Table 2 describes the laboratory findings. 4,51,74,76,77 Watery diarrhea is part of the initial presentation in approximately 20% of patients.…”

“…65,73 Hospital-acquired SARS less frequently presents with diarrhea (18.8%) 73 Data from Refs. 3,4,7,32,48,51,52,[71][72][73][74][75] Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome…”

“…In another report, 97% of cases had abnormal chest radiographs. 72,73 LABORATORY TESTING Sensitivity of RT-PCR collected in the first 3 days of the illness is inadequate. The 6item clinical score for emergency room triage during a SARS outbreak of febrile patients, most of whom were otherwise healthy, seems to be 92.6% sensitive and 71.2% specific.…”

SARS in Newborns and Children

“…1) [6,7,20]. Various abnormalities, including focal consolidation, ground glass opacities, linear atelectasis and peribronchial thickening have been reported [6,7,20].…”

“…Various abnormalities, including focal consolidation, ground glass opacities, linear atelectasis and peribronchial thickening have been reported [6,7,20]. Similar to the adult disease, these abnormal changes are concentrated predominantly in the lower lobes [20]. High-resolution computed tomography (CT) scanning of the chest was not routinely performed in paediatric SARS patients, and was reserved for children with (i) high suspicion of SARSCoV infection; (ii) positive contact history, and (iii) normal or equivocal initial chest radiographs.…”