Most often, viruses are the cause of pneumonia in children. However, viral pneumonias are frequently associated with secondary bacterial pneumonia. It is important, though difficult, to differentiate patients who only have viral pneumonia from those who have viral pneumonia with secondary bacterial pneumonia. This will help physicians to prescribe antibiotics to only those with bacterial pneumonia and avoid antibiotic use in those with pure viral pneumonia, thus help to limit health-care cost and to decrease emergence of antibiotic resistance. In adult studies, TREM-1 has been shown to be specifically expressed in bacterial infections.
We propose that measuring TREM-1 in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid will help to differentiate these groups. Our hypothesis is that concentration of TREM-1 will be significantly elevated in the BAL fluid of children with bacterial pneumonia and viral with co-existing bacterial pneumonia than in children with pure viral pneumonia.
