Evaluation of Radiographic Findings in Children with Different Severity of Pneumonia Aged from 1 Month to 18 Years Old

Objectives: to evaluate the relationship between different chest X-ray (CXR) radiologic findings in pediatricpatients admitted with different severity of pneumonia. Material and methods: The present descriptiveanalyticalcross-sectional study took place in Ali Ibn Abitaleb Hospital (Zahedan, Iran). Every pediatricpatient with the clinical diagnosis of pneumonia enrolled and the study population was divided into nonsevere,severe, and very severe groups based on the world health organization criteria of pneumonia severity.The CXR findings of every pediatric patient were reported and the correlation between the radiologicfindings and disease severity was evaluated. Results: A total of 352 patients with a mean age of 22.63months enrolled and the majority of patients were male (212, 60.2%). The intensity of disease was nonseverein the majority of patients (279, 79.3%) and severe in 17.6%. There was a significant differencebetween disease severity groups in terms of age (p<0.001) and radiographic findings (p<0.001). There was asignificant relationship between severe disease and age (p=0.002, OR=0.964, 95% CI for OR: 0.942, 0.986).Moreover, there was a significant relationship between very severe disease and reticular pattern (p=0.042,OR=9.543, 95% CI for OR: 1.086, 83.886). Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that CXR findingsin children with pneumonia are correlated with disease severity and consolidation and reticular patterns arethe important findings indicating disease severity in children.