Observations in febrile children with round air space opacities.

BACKGROUND: Community-acquired pneumonia in children is rarely depicted as round opacity. The aim of the present study was therefore to describe the clinical and laboratory characteristics of round pneumonia in children.

METHODS: The clinical series consisted of 30 children aged 1-7 years (mean age, 3.4 +/- 1.8 years) who were compared to an equal number of children with segmental or lobar pneumonia aged 3-11 years (mean age, 5.5 +/- 2.7 years).

RESULTS: Round pneumonia was localized more often in the lower lobe (17/30), and the right side was more commonly affected (20/30). The same, however, was the case for the control group. The two groups were not different regarding the severity of the disease but cough was much more common in the control patients. The white blood cells were considerably higher in round pneumonia, whereas the other inflammatory indices were not significantly different. All round consolidations responded promptly to antibiotics and resolved radiographically in 8 weeks.

CONCLUSION: Round consolidations in febrile children associated with elevated inflammatory indices seem to be attributed to round pneumonia, which responds promptly to antibiotics without complications.