Background: Bronchiolitis is a common lower respiratory tract infection in infants. Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) may be a useful biomarker to assist its severity
Aim of current study was to study the efficacy of LDH in both nasal secretions (NW-LDH) and serum (S-LDH) as a useful biochemical indicator of bronchiolitis severity .
Subject and Methods: The present study was conducted on 96 infant with bronchiolitis ( < 24 months old ) presenting to pediatric department of Al-ahrar and Ahmed Maher Teaching Hospital. during the period from November 2018 to March 2019. Patients were subjected to history taking, clinical examination general and systemic, investigations including blood gases &CRP, chest X –ray if necessary, total LDH activity in both nasal secretions and serum.
Results: In bronchiolitis, percentage of male was higher than female (65.6%, 34.4 %), with a mean ±SD of age 8.25±2.61 months, percentage of mild , moderate and severe cases were 36 (37.5%) , 44(45.8 %) ,16 (16.7%) respectively. No significant difference in serum LDH(S-LDH) between mild cases " not require admission " moderate "require hospital admission " or severe cases "require PICO admission (F:1.46 P: 0.237) while there was significant difference in nasal wash LDH (NW-LDH) among different grades of severity (F: 70.85 ,P:0.001) The significant predictors for severity of bronchiolitis were NW-LDH , younger age , longer hospital stay ,.
Conclusion: NW-LDH is a biochemical Predictor of bronchiolitis severity , hospital ,PICO admission than S-LDH if demographic variable and viral etiology are taken in consideration