Correlation of Clinical parameters with Oxygen saturation measurements in Acute bronchiolitis

Introduction: Acute bronchiolitis is a viral respiratory illness causing frequent hospitalization of young infants worldwide.Diagnostic parameters to predict the needed hospital admission and treatment modalities in these infants will be helpful for the attending clinicians.Objective: To correlate the clinical parameters of acute bronchiolitis with pulse oximetry.Design: A hospital based prospective observational study of two months duration.Methods: Thirty infants with acute bronchiolitis diagnosed clinically were studied by comparing the clinical signs with pulse oximeter oxygen saturation.The data was analyzed and Fishers Exact test applied for statistical significance.Results: The maximum affected age group was from one to three months.Ninety percent of children had danger signs at admission.Of these 73.3% required intensive care, among whom 63.3% had hypoxemia (SpO < 95%) as revealed by pulse oximetry.No statistical relation was 2 observed between clinical parameters and degree of hypoxemia.The mean hospital stay was six days.Nebulized Salbutamol, though found effective in relieving respiratory distress, did not reduce the duration of hospital stay.Conclusions: The degree of hypoxemia in babies with acute bronchiolitis cannot be assessed by clinical parameters alone, and can be detected more accurately by pulse oximetry.