Clinical and Laboratory Characteristics of Childhood Brucellosis in High-Risk Area of Western China

Childhood brucellosis presents various nonspecific clinical symptoms, and limited laboratory data exist for clinical diagnosis. A better understanding of these clinical and laboratory characteristics can avoid clinical misdiagnosis and mistreatment. In this case-series study, a total of 78 children with a confirmed diagnosis of brucellosis were evaluated retrospectively. We observed that the incidence rate was high in the first two quarters every year. The most common symptom was fever. Osteoarticular involvement was found in 44.87% of the patients. Laboratory tests showed that the values of erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein (CRP), hemoglobin, neutrophils (NEU), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and ferritin in childhood brucellosis with osteoarticular involvement had significant differences than those without osteoarticular involvement or control group (P < 0.05). Childhood brucellosis without osteoarticular involvement is often accompanied by decreased NEU and increased CRP and ALT compared with that of the control group (P < 0.05). The Receiver Operating Curves analysis revealed that NEU, CRP, and ALT could be used as adjunct parameters in the differential diagnosis of childhood brucellosis. These data suggest that clinical and laboratory characteristics are essential for every clinician and may have a complementary role in diagnosing childhood brucellosis.