Chest radiography in children aged 2-59 months enrolled in the Innovative Treatments in Pneumonia (ITIP) project in Lilongwe Malawi: a secondary analysis

BACKGROUND

Pneumonia is the leading infectious cause of death in children aged under 5 years in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). World Health Organization (WHO) pneumonia diagnosis guidelines rely on non-specific clinical features. We explore chest radiography (CXR) findings among select children in the Innovative Treatments in Pneumonia (ITIP) project in Malawi in relation to clinical outcomes.

METHODS

When clinically indicated, CXRs were obtained from ITIP-enrolled children aged 2 to 59 months with community-acquired pneumonia hospitalized with treatment failure or relapse. ITIP1 (fast-breathing pneumonia) and ITIP2 (chest-indrawing pneumonia) trials enrolled children with non-severe pneumonia while ITIP3 enrolled children excluded from ITIP1 and ITIP2 with severe pneumonia and/or selected comorbidities. A panel of trained pediatricians classified the CXRs using the standardized WHO CXR research methodology. We analyzed the relationship between CXR classifications, enrollee characteristics, and outcomes.

RESULTS

Between March 2016 and June 2018, of 114 CXRs obtained, 83 met analysis criteria with 62.7% (52/83) classified as having significant pathology per WHO standardized interpretation. ITIP3 (92.3%; 12/13) children had a higher proportion of CXRs with significant pathology compared to ITIP1 (57.1%, 12/21) and ITIP2 (57.1%, 28/49) (p-value = 0.008). The predominant pathological CXR reading was "other infiltrates only" in ITIP1 (83.3%, 10/12) and ITIP2 (71.4%, 20/28), while in ITIP3 it was "primary endpoint pneumonia"(66.7%, 8/12,; p-value = 0.008). The percent of CXRs with significant pathology among children clinically cured (60.6%, 40/66) vs those not clinically cured (70.6%, 12/17) at Day 14 was not significantly different (p-value = 0.58).

CONCLUSIONS

In this secondary analysis we observed that ITIP3 children with severe pneumonia and/or selected comorbidities had a higher frequency of CXRs with significant pathology, although these radiographic findings had limited relationship to Day 14 outcomes. The proportion of CXRs with "primary endpoint pneumonia" was low. These findings add to existing data that additional diagnostics and prognostics are important for improving the care of children with pneumonia in LMICs.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ITIP1, ITIP2, and ITIP3 were registered with ClinicalTrials.gov ( NCT02760420 , NCT02678195 , and NCT02960919 , respectively).

Malawian children with chest-indrawing pneumonia with and without comorbidities or danger signs

Background

Children with comorbidities or danger signs are often excluded from trials evaluating pneumonia treatment.

Methods

We sought to investigate whether the percentage of children with chest-indrawing pneumonia cured at Day 14 was lower among those with HIV infection or exposure, malaria, moderate or severe acute malnutrition, or anemia enrolled in a prospective observational cohort study than among children without these comorbidities enrolled in a concurrent prospective randomized controlled trial evaluating duration of amoxicillin treatment in Lilongwe, Malawi.

Results

Children with chest-indrawing pneumonia and comorbidities but without danger signs did not have statistically significant higher treatment failure rates by Day 6 than those in the chest-indrawing pneumonia clinical trial. However, children with chest-indrawing pneumonia and HIV infection or exposure, malaria, or moderate or severe acute malnutrition had higher rates of not being clinically cured at Day 14 when compared to children without these comorbidities (adjusted differences ranging from 7.7% to 17.0%). Furthermore, among children without danger signs at enrollment, but with HIV infection or HIV exposure or moderate or severe acute malnutrition, 12.5% and 15.6% respectively were not clinically cured at Day 14 even though they were without treatment failure by Day 6.

Conclusions

More intensive follow-up of children with chest-indrawing pneumonia and comorbidities who do not have danger signs may be beneficial.