Abstract

MARTINEZ-MEDINA, Miguel Ángel; ALVAREZ-HERNANDEZ, Gerardo  and  CONTRERAS-MENDOZA, Ana B. Valor diagnóstico del signo de "cabeceo" en hipoxemia secundaria a neumonía en niños. Salud pública Méx [online]. 2010, vol.52, n.4, pp.334-340. ISSN 0036-3634.

Objective. To assess the clinical usefulness of the head nodding sign (HN) in children with pneumonia. Material and Methods. Cross-sectional study that included 62 children aged 2-59 months. Hypoxemia was defined as arterial oxygen saturation <94% measured by pulse oximetry. HN was examined with regard to three levels of hypoxemia (<94%, . 90%, . 84%). Results. The overall prevalence of hypoxemia was 56.5 %. HN was observed in 64.5% (40) of the patients, 48.4% (30) of those had pneumonia and 73.1% were hypoxemic. HN showed a sensitivity of 73.2% and a specificity of 52.4%. Accuracy of HN was better when a cut off level <94% was used. HN in infants was a better index for hypoxemia than for older children. Conclusions. HN was a good predictor of hypoxemia in children with pneumonia. It seems that HN is an easily recognizable sign, and it could be easily taught to parents and health workers.

Keywords : pneumonia; hypoxemia; diagnosis; infants; Mexico.