Paediatric Respiratory Medicine - Distress, cough, apnoea and CF Flashcards
What are the signs of respiratory distress seen in a child?
Accessory muscles Tachypnoea Grunting Nasal flaring Recession Head bobbing Tripoding - optimise use of accessory muscles Cyanosis
What is grunting caused by?
Exhaling against a partially closed glottis to keep airway open
What is the difference between a wheeze and stridor?
Wheeze is an expiratory sound caused by lower airway obstruction. Intrathoracic airway collapse
Stridor is a high pitched inspiratory sound caused by upper airway obstruction. Extra thoracic airways collapse
Name some causes of wheeze
Asthma
Bronchiolitis
Viral wheeze
Foreign body
Name some causes of stridor
Croup Foreign body Epiglottitis Laryngomalacia Vocal cord dysfunction Abscess - peritonsillar or retropharyngeal Anaphylaxis
What causes of respiratory distress should you consider? (broadly speaking)
Cardiac problems?
Structural issues?
Infective cause?
Gas exchange problem?
What duration of cough corresponds to being acute, subacute and chronic respectively?
Acute <3 weeks
Subacute 3-8 weeks
Chronic >8 weeks
What generally causes acute coughs?
Infection
What generally causes subacute coughs?
Post viral cough
What about a cough could indicate it is due to asthma?
Night time
Wheeze
Has a trigger
What features of a cough could indicate it is due to a recurrent infection?
Start with additional respiratory signs
What feature of a cough would indicate a post nasal drip or GORD
Worse on lying down
What would suggest a cough is one of habit?
Won’t cough at night
Otherwise well
What would suggest a cough has an environmental cause?
History of smoking/parental smoking
Live in polluted area
How would a cough present in a child with Cystic Fibrosis?
Begin at young age
Systemically unwell
What is a classical Tuberculosis cough?
Systemically unwell
Cough progress
What features of a cough would suggest a child has inhaled a foreign body?
Acute onset
Haemoptysis?
What are the red flag signs for a cough?
Sudden onset Haemoptysis Dysphagia Moist productive cough Night sweats Weight loss Worsening cough Failure to thrive
What investigations would you consider if a child had a chronic cough?
CXR
Lung function
Skin prick
Sputum sample for culture and microscopy
A 12 year old obese boy comes in with feeling tired at school. His mum says he is always grumpy in the morning and has missed school because of headaches. She often hears him snoring loudly at night. Upon examination his tonsils appear swollen. What is the likely diagnosis?
Obstructive sleep apnoea