Table 1.
Comparison of the clinical and demographic characteristics between virus-negative or RSV positive infants hospitalized for bronchiolitis.
| Item* | Virus-negative group*** | RSV single infection positive group |
|---|---|---|
| Gender | ||
| Female | 34/69 (49.3) | 34/69 (49.3) |
| Male | 35/69 (50.7) | 35/69 (50.7) |
| Gestational age (weeks) | 38.9 (0.2) | 38.4 (0.2) |
| Birth weight (kg) | 3.2 (0.1) | 3.1 (0.1) |
| Age at hospital admission (days) | 62.0 (4.9) | 63.0 (5.1) |
| Weight at hospital admission (kg) | 5.0 (0.2) | 4.8 (0.2) |
| Severity of bronchiolitis** | ||
| Group 0 + 1(%) | 55/69 (79.7) | 49/69 (71.0) |
| Group 2 + 3 (%) | 14/69 (20.3) | 20/69 (29.0) |
| Fever | 22/69 (31.9) | 22/69 (31.9) |
| Days in hospital (days) | 5.3 (0.3) | 5.8 (0.4) |
| C-reactive protein (mg/dl) | 1.1 (0.2) | 1.5 (0.4) |
| Neutrophils (cells/μl) | 4121 (321) | 3970 (373) |
| Lymphocytes (cells/μl) | 5124 (366) | 4859 (213) |
| Eosinophils (cells/μl) | 115 (15) | 95 (15) |
| Platelets (no./μl) | 452,815 (19350) | 462,708 (21678) |
The number of patients of each gender are shown, with percentages in parentheses, and for other variables the means are shown with SE in parentheses. McNemar's test and gender paired t-test was used to compare respectively the categorical or continuous variables between patient group.
Infants were grouped according to the worst severity of bronchiolitis as previously described (Papoff et al., 2011)
Infants who tested negative for the detection of fourteen respiratory viruses (RSV, influenza A and B, coronavirus OC43, 229 E, NL63, HKU1, metapneumovirus, adenovirus, rhinovirus and parainfluenza 1–3, Bocavirus) by using a panel of reverse transcription (RT) PCR or nested PCR assays, some in a multiplex format (Pierangeli et al., 2007, Pierangeli et al., 2008).