Article in Japanese

Scoring system to distinguish between bacterial pneumonia and atypical pneumonia in children

Naruhiko ISHIWADA¹⁾, Fumie NAGAI²⁾, Junko TANAKA¹⁾, Masanaga ARIMA³⁾, Katsuaki ABE⁴⁾, Chie FUKASAWA¹⁾, Haruka HISHIKI¹⁾, Tadashi HOSHINO⁴⁾, Nobue INOUE³⁾, Jiro AIZAWA⁵⁾, Hiroko OHSHIMA²⁾, Nobuyasu ISHIKAWA⁵⁾, Tomomichi KUROSAKI³⁾, Yoichi KOHNO¹⁾

Clinical differentiation between atypical pneumonia and bacterial pneumonia was examined in children using the scoring system described below.
The criteria were: (1) age more than 6 years, (2) no underlying disease, (3) no β-lactam antibiotic therapy within a week, (4) good general condition, (5) dry cough, (6) limited chest auscultatory findings, (7) segmental shadow of chest x-ray film, (8) CRP bellow 4 mg/dl, and (9) a peripheral white blood cell count bellow 10,000/μl.
The sensitivity and specificity for atypical pneumonia were 82% and 100% based on meeting five or more of the criteria. This scoring system is useful in choosing an initial course of antibiotics for treating pediatric community-acquired pneumonia.

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1) Department of Pediatrics, Chiba University Hospital
2) Department of Pediatrics, Teikyo University Chiba Medical Center
3) Department of Pediatrics, Chiba Kaihin Municipal Hospital
4) Division of Infectious Diseases, Chiba Children's Hospital
5) Department of Pediatrics, Chiba Aoba Municipal Hospital

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Received	July 13, 2010
Accepted	August 23, 2010

22 (4)：343─348,2010