Objective: To determine decrease in respiratory distress and hospital stay in bronchiolitis patients with and without family history of atopy when treated with prednisolone.
Methods: The multi-centre quasi-experimental study was conducted in three hospitals of Sialkot, Pakistan, from October 2017 to March 2018, and comprised patients of bronchiolitis who were divided into 2 groups on the basis of presence or absence of family history of atopy. Half of the patients in each group received oral prednisolone 2mg/kg/day for three consecutive days along with supportive care, and the remaining half received only supportive care. Patients were monitored at 12 and 24 hours for clinical response using Modified Respiratory distress Assessment Instrument score. Length of hospital stay was monitored upto 72 hours. SPSS 20 was used for data analysis.
Results: Of the 212 patients, 72(34%) were in the atopic group and 140(66%) in the non-atopic group. In atopic group, there was a significant respiratory distress difference observed between steroid and non-steroid subgroups at 24 hours (p=0.001) and all (100%) patients in the steroid subgroup got discharged at 24 hours, while only 8(22%) were discharged in the non-steroid subgroup. In non-atopic group, no significant improvement in corresponding terms was observed (p>0.05).
Conclusions: Oral prednisolone in bronchiolitis was found to be only effective in patients with family history of atopy.
Keywords: Bronchiolitis, Atopy, Infants, Steroid. (JPMA 69: 1448; 2019).doi:10.5455/JPMA.296296.