Abstract:
Objective To investigate the effect of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection on the clinical presentation, duration of illness, and severity of illness in children with pertussis. Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on 241 children with pertussis who were admitted to the paediatric ward of the First Affiliated Hospital of the University of Science and Technology of China from April 2015 to December 2019. They were divided into an observation group of 80 cases (with CMV infection) and a control group of 161 cases (without CMV infection) based on whether they had CMV infection. Clinical data of the patients were collected, including gender, age, days of onset before admission, history of cough contact, vaccination history, nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, nocturnal cough, spasmodic cough, vomiting after coughing, redness after coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, apnoea, fever, lung rales, pneumonia, length of hospital stay, duration of cough symptoms, total white blood cell count, liver function, chest X-ray and chest CT. The attractiveness indicators of two groups of children were analyzed. Results The incidence of shortness of breath [3.75%(3/80) vs. 0, P=0.036] was significantly higher in the observation group than in the control group, and the duration of cough symptoms [8.50 (6.00, 11.00) d vs. 7.00 (4.00, 9.00) d, Z=-3.632, P < 0.001] and hospitalization time [11.00 (8.00, 13.00) d vs. 8.00 (6.00, 10.00)d, Z=-5.026, P < 0.001] were significantly longer in the observation group than in the control group. Comparing the clinical manifestations and signs of nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, nocturnal cough, spasmodic cough, post-cough vomiting, post-cough redness, wheezing, apnoea, fever, lung rales, and pneumonia between the two groups, there were no statistically significant difference (all P > 0.05). There were no significant difference in total white blood cell count, liver function and imaging findings (all P > 0.05). Conclusion CMV infection may prolong the duration of pertussis in infants.