PICU admissions
Multivariate analysis revealed a positive association between CRP and an increased risk of PICU admission due to respiratory failure. Studies report an admission rate of 3-27% with variability in invasive ventilation usage, which correlates with younger age, especially those under 3 months. A recent study reported a PICU admission rate of 27%, with only 3.5% requiring invasive ventilation, and 96% utilizing high flow nasal cannula. This non-invasive ventilation method is routinely used in the PICU and was integrated into our pediatric wards in the middle of the study period. This may have contributed to the low rate of PICU admission in our study of 5.5%. Although few studies have examined the association between CRP and PICU admission, a preliminary study of 177 patients found an association between PICU admission and a mean CRP of 3.9 mg/dL when most patients had RSV bronchiolitis. However, another study failed to demonstrate such an association. Our study demonstrated an association between elevated CRP and PICU admission, reflected by a relative risk of 2.25 in a multivariable model. The suggested cutoff value’s ability to differentiate between children admitted to PICU was limited (Figure 3). However, we found that a cutoff value of 3.295 was useful for children under three months old (AUC 0.68).