Wheezing illness caused by respiratory syncytial virus and other agents.

BACKGROUND

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and other pathogenic agents cause lower respiratory infection with wheezing in infants (wheezing illness in infancy). Wheezing illness in infancy due to RSV can be life-threatening and can induce recurrent wheezing; but these events can also be produced by infection by other pathogenic agents. Thus, whether RSV induces more severe wheezing illness in infancy remains poorly understood.

METHODS

Infants with an initial wheezing illness were divided into an RSV-positive group and an RSV-negative group and the differences in disease severity, intensity of acute symptoms, and susceptibility to recurrent wheezing, between these two groups, were investigated.

RESULTS

The RSV-positive group accounted for 57.4% of the infants. The infants in the RSV-positive group were significantly younger than those in the RSV-negative group. Other background parameters, gender and family history, were not significantly different. There were no significant differences in indicators of severity (hospitalization periods, periods of persistent wheezing and requirement of oxygen supplementation) between the two groups.

CONCLUSION

Wheezing illness in infancy caused by RSV is more common in younger infants, but it is not more severe than that caused by other pathogenic agents.