Background: Bronchiolitis is the most common acute infection of the airways and lungs during the first years of life. It is caused by viruses, the most common being respiratory syncytial virus. The illness starts similar to a cold, with symptoms such as a runny nose, mild fever and cough. It later leads to fast, troubled and often noisy breathing (for example, wheezing).
Objective: Detect the efficiency of prednisolone in treatment of bronchiolitis in children with and without family history of atopy.
Patients and Method: This was a Prospective observational comparative study was conducted at pediatric department, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University (Assuit). 100 children between 2month to 2 year presenting with acute bronchiolitis divided into two groups: Group A: children with family history of atopy, Group B: children without family history of atopy. Each group was divided into two subgroup. one subgroup received oral prednisolone 2mg/kg/day In two divided doses for 3 consecutive days with supportive care (nebulization with salbutamol 0.1mg/kg with 2cc normal saline 6 hourly, nebulization with normal saline 2cc 2 hourly and nutritional support in the shape of adequate usual caloric intake according to age of the patient), The other subgroup received only supportive care.
The primary outcome was the Respiratory Assessment Change Score.
(RACS): The secondary outcome was length of hospital stay
Results: There were insignificant differences between the study groups on admission as regard degree of respiratory distress but after 12, 24 hour there were significant improvement in group A with steroids. As regard Chest X-ray there were insignificant differences between the study groups on admission where p-value 0.893. As regard RDAI score our results showed that there were significant differences between study groups as regard RDAI Score on admission after 12 and 24 hours with best result in group B with steroids after 12 hrs. And group A with steroids after 24 hrs.' and showed that there were significant improvement in all groups after 12 and 24 hours. As regard length of hospital stay, there was significant shorter duration of hospital stay in group A with steroids than other groups
Conclusion: Findings of the study revealed that oral prednisolone shorting the duration of hospital stay in children with acute bronchiolitis with family history of atopy than those without family history of atopy.