Infants with viral bronchiolitis demonstrate two distinct patterns of nocturnal oxyhaemoglobin desaturation.
AIM
This study aimed to demonstrate that viral bronchiolitis is associated with intermittent oxygen saturation of haemoglobin (SpO2 ) drops (≥3%) and low basal SpO2 between episodes of haemoglobin desaturation.


METHODS
Infants with bronchiolitis underwent pulse oximetry during the first night following hospital admission and a subgroup of them underwent repeat oximetry before hospital discharge. Oximetry was also performed in infants with partial upper airway obstruction (UAO) and without lung disease and in control participants without UAO or lung disease.


RESULTS
We enrolled 53 infants: 21 with bronchiolitis, 11 with UAO and 21 healthy controls. Participants with bronchiolitis had lower basal SpO2 (median 93.7% [10th-90th percentiles: 91.1-96.8]) than the subjects with UAO (96.9% [95.3-98.1]; p < 0.01) or the controls (98.7% [96.9-99.3]; p < 0.01). The bronchiolitis group was not different from the UAO group regarding the desaturation index (23.3 episodes/hour [10.3-46.6] and 15.5 episodes/hour [5.4-36.4], respectively; p = 0.08), but differed significantly from the controls (3.1 episodes/hour [0.3-5.5]; p < 0.01). The basal SpO2 and desaturation index improved in 10 subjects with bronchiolitis who had follow-up oximetry before discharge, but these indices remained abnormal when compared to values in the control group.


CONCLUSION
Bronchiolitis was characterised by low nocturnal basal SpO2 and intermittent SpO2 drops.
['Kaditis|Athanasios G|AG|', 'Katsouli|Georgia|G|', 'Malakasioti|Georgia|G|', 'Kaffe|Katerina|K|', 'Gemou-Engesaeth|Vasiliki|V|', 'Alexopoulos|Emmanouel I|EI|']
D015415:Biomarkers D001990:Bronchiolitis, Viral D016022:Case-Control Studies D002940:Circadian Rhythm D005260:Female D005500:Follow-Up Studies D006801:Humans D007223:Infant D008297:Male D010092:Oximetry D010100:Oxygen D010108:Oxyhemoglobins
bronchiolitis oximetry infancy nocturnal hypoxaemia sleep-disordered breathing