Correlation of Interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) and C-Reactive protein Levels with Clinical Diagnosis and Disease Severity in Pediatric Patients with RSV Infection

Objective: To analyze the relationship between IFN-γ, CRP and clinical diagnosis of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) infection. Method: Clinical data of RSV positive children admitted to the pediatrics department of Al-Zahraa Teaching Hospital, AL-Najaf, Iraq, from November 2024 to February 2025. They were divided into three groups according to different ages, <6months, 6-11 months, 12-24 months, 25-60 months, and male group and female group according to the sex. The clinical characteristics of the children in different groups were compared, and the significance of clinical diagnosis of the children with RSV pneumonia, acute Bronchitis and Bronchiolitis was analyzed by measuring the serum INF-γ, CRP and other hematological parameters levels. Results: INF-γ is significantly higher in pneumonia patients compared to acute bronchitis and bronchiolitis. While, WBC levels are slightly higher in bronchitis and bronchiolitis compared to pneumonia, though the overall differences are relatively low. Furthermore, CRP, a key inflammatory marker, is higher in pneumonia than in bronchitis or bronchiolitis. The mean of interferon gamma showed there were a highly significant increase in the level among RSV (+) children (181.8±47.8) when compared with RSV (−) groups (18.21±3.34), with (P= <0.001). Conclusion: the current study concluded that, the significant differences in INF-γ, WBCs, CRP, and ESR levels suggest that biomarkers can aid in distinguishing between these respiratory conditions, contributing to more accurate clinical decision-making and may also indicate to the clinical severity of disease in those patients