Cardiac involvement in children with community-acquired pneumonia and respiratory failure

Background Pneumonia causes significant incidence in children younger than 5 years. Most fatalities are resulted from complications. High rates of cardiac events were detected in adult studies but usually related to underlying diseases. Objective To study the cardiac effects of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) with respiratory failure (RF) in healthy children. Methods The prospective cohort study was conducted in children aged 2–59 months with CAP and RF. Cardiac enzyme assessments, chest radiography, electrocardiography, and echocardiography were performed at the admission date and 2 weeks after admission. t-test and chi-square test were used for comparison between first and second investigations, and the statistically significance level was a P <0.05. Results Of the 135 patients, pericardial effusion occurred in 80 (59%), valvular regurgitation in 30 (22%), ST/T changes in 66 (49%), cardiac arrhythmia in 7 (5%), and myocardial injury in 83 (62%). Significant improvement of cardiothoracic-ratio, heart rate, ST/T changes, cardiac arrhythmia, troponin T, myocardial performance, and left-ventricular ejection fraction was demonstrated at second investigations. Three mortality cases exhibited evidence of congestive heart failure (CHF). Conclusion Children with CAP and RF had several cardiac effects even in healthy children. Most cardiac effects were mild and transient. Mortality cases were revealed evidence of congestive heart failure (CHF). Future research should be designed to find out the characteristics and predictors of CHF for early recognition and therapeutic strategy.