Children With Acute Respiratory Tract Infections

The prevalence of electrocardiographic abnormalities suggestive of myocarditis among 737 children with respiratory tract infection was 1.49%, which did not differ significantly from that encountered in a control group of 108 cases without respiratory tract illness. Six (46.2%) of 13 patients with abnormal electrocardiograms and 412 (49.5%) of 832 patients with normal ECGs showed laboratory evidence of recent virus infection. The distribution of virus serotypes was also the same in the two groups with and without ECG changes. These findings indicate that the ECG abnormalities were a random occurrence not associated with illness or with laboratory evidence of virus infections. Diagnostic tests more sensitive and/or more specific than the ECG are necessary to determine whether or not myocarditis occurs as a complication of acute infections of the respiratory tract.