Significance of acute phase reactants as prognostic biomarkers for pneumonia in children

Abstract

Community acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a major contributing cause for the increased rate of childhood mortalities and morbidities in the developing countries. Thus, we aimed in this study to appraise the significance of acute phase reactant proteins in correlation with the modified pneumonia prognostic score to assess the disease severity and outcome in children. This study included 40 children with pneumonia (age between 6 months 2 years) and other 40 healthy controls (age and sex matched). They were enrolled in the study and a detailed history’s obtained, full clinical examination and assessment of AGP, CRP and ferritin in serum in addition to CBC. AGP, CRP and ferritin showed significant higher levels in children with pneumonia than healthy controls. Also, their values were significantly higher in nonsuvivors than survivors. The present investigation provides a distinct evidence for the prominence of acute phase reactants (ferritin, CRP and AGP) in comparison with the clinical scores in predicting early high risk prognosis of pneumonia in children.