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Validation of a nutritional screen in children with respiratory syncytial virus admitted to an intensive care complex
1Department of Pediatrics, Wright State University School of Medicine, Dayton, Ohio, USA.
Insights
A validated nutritional screen accurately identifies pediatric intensive care patients with respiratory syncytial virus at high risk for adverse outcomes, aiding early intervention. This tool can benefit other pediatric diagnoses.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Intensive Care
- Nutritional Assessment
- Clinical Outcomes
Background:
- Pediatric patients in intensive care are vulnerable to adverse clinical outcomes.
- Accurate nutritional assessment is crucial for identifying at-risk children.
- Existing nutritional screens may lack ease of performance or accuracy.
Purpose of the Study:
- To validate a simple and accurate nutritional screen for pediatric intensive care patients.
- To identify pediatric patients at risk for adverse clinical outcomes based on nutritional status.
Main Methods:
- Evaluated 25 pediatric intensive care patients with respiratory syncytial virus infection.
- Collected historical, anthropometric, and laboratory data for nutritional screening.
- Assessed outcomes including hospitalization, mechanical ventilation, enteral feeding, and oxygen use.
Main Results:
- A nutritional screen score >5 indicated high risk for adverse outcomes.
- Patients with high-risk scores experienced significantly longer hospital stays, ventilation, and oxygen use.
- Eleven patients had low scores (low risk), and 14 had high scores (high risk).
Conclusions:
- The validated nutritional screen effectively identifies pediatric intensive care patients with respiratory syncytial virus at increased risk.
- This nutritional screen shows potential utility for identifying at-risk pediatric patients across various medical diagnoses.
Objective:
We sought to validate a nutritional screen that was easy to perform and accurate in identifying pediatric patients at risk for adverse clinical outcomes based on their nutritional status.
Methods:
Twenty-five consecutive patients admitted to our pediatric intensive care complex between July 1992 and July 1993 with a primary diagnosis of respiratory syncytial virus infection were evaluated. Nutritional screen parameters included historical (disease and condition), growth (anthropometrics), and laboratory (hemoglobin, lymphocyte count, and albumin) data. Outcome measures included days in the hospital, days of mechanical ventilation, days not fed enterally, and days receiving oxygen.
Results:
Regression analysis indicated that a score of 5 or less signified a low risk of adverse outcome and a score of greater than 5 signified a high risk. Eleven of 25 patients had low scores, and 14 of 25 had high scores. All outcome measures differed significantly between the low- and high-risk groups: median number of days in the hospital, 7 and 13.5, respectively; median number of days of ventilation, 0 and 8.5, respectively; median number of days without enteral feeding, 3 and 8.5, respectively; and median number of days receiving oxygen, 4 and 20, respectively.
Conclusions:
Our nutritional screen identifies patients in the pediatric intensive care complex with respiratory syncytial virus at increased risk for adverse outcome. This screen may be useful in identifying pediatric patients at risk for adverse clinical outcomes from other medical diagnoses.