Clinical and laboratory findings in children with adenovirus infections

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Abstract
The hospital records of 49 children with adenovirus infection were reviewed. Diagnosis was made by virus isolation from the airways in 73%, the stools in 44%, the conjunctiva in 2% and by serology in 14% of the patients. Most children were less than 3 years of age. The peak indidence of virus isolation occurred during the month of April. Pharyngotonsillitis was the most frequent main diagnosis (49%), followed by pneumonia (14%), gastroenteritis (10%) and bronchitis (8%). Fever was the most frequent main symptom (43%), and 96% of the patients had fever at some time during the illness. The average fever temperature was 39.6°C with a mean duration of 5.9 days. An obvious bacterial superinfection could be demonstrated in three patients: two had otitis media and one had pneumonia with pleural effusion. All three had more than 3 band forms per 100 peripheral white blood cells, whereas only 1 out of 46 children without demonstrable superinfection had an elevated band count. Other laboratory tests were not useful in detecting bacterial superinfection. That 71% of all children received antibiotics at some time during their illness, reflects the difficulty of excluding bacterial disease.