Prospective evaluation of World Health Organization guidelines for diagnosis of pneumonia in children presenting to an emergency department in a resource-limited setting.

BACKGROUND Clinicians in resource-limited settings commonly use the World Health Organization criteria to diagnose pneumonia in children. AIM The aim of this study was to prospectively evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the WHO criteria compared with chest radiograph for the diagnosis of pneumonia in children under 5 years of age presenting to an emergency department (ED) in Nepal. METHODS A prospective cross-sectional study of children presenting to an ED with respiratory complaints in Nepal was conducted. It included all children under 5 years of age with cough or difficulty breathing who received a chest radiograph. Paediatric pneumonia was diagnosed according to WHO criteria when a child presented with a cough or difficulty breathing and met the age-related WHO-defined respiratory rate for tachypnoea. The criterion standard was radiographic pneumonia. The primary outcome was the sensitivity and specificity of the WHO criteria for diagnosis of pneumonia. RESULTS Of 324 patients enrolled, 72 had radiographic pneumonia. The median (IQR) age was 17 (23) months. Overall, WHO criteria had a sensitivity of 71% (95% CI 59-81) and specificity of 57% (95% CI 50-63). Respiratory rate had poor diagnostic accuracy for pneumonia with an area under the curve of 0.65. CONCLUSION The WHO criteria had poor sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of pneumonia in children presenting to the ED in a resource-limited setting.