[183] Etiology of Community-Acquired Pneumonies and Inflammatory Markers in Febrile Children

1) Etiology of community-acquired pneumonie (CAP) in children. The etiology  of CAP in still a challenge in children because of the absence of adequate pulmonary samples. However, viruses replicate in nasal mucosa before spreading to the lung tissues, and bacterial DNA (ex. S. pneumoniae) can be found in the blood of children with CAP despite negative blood cultures. Our studies focus on the development and the use of PCR in nasopharyngeal samples and blood to determine the etiology of community-acquired pneumonie in children.

2) Inflammatory markers in febrile children. Distinguishing viral from bacterial infection in very young children is still a challenge because of the absence of specific clinical signs. This leads to overhospitalisation and overuse of antibiotics. Our clinical studies want to determine the usefulness of inflammatory markers, such as procalcitonin, IL-6, IL-8, C-reactive protein as markers of severe bacterial infections in young children.

Group Publications