Baseline characteristics
The median age (IQR) at hospital admission was 43 (33-61) months for the
whole cohort, with no difference between children who were going to
receive corticosteroids or not (p=0.667) (Table 1). Most of the included
children were previously healthy, even though 27.8% reported a previous
respiratory disease. The main complaints at hospital admission were
fever (97.9%), asthenia (82.5%), cough (67%), dyspnea (39.2%),
abdominal pain (39.2%) and chest pain (23.7%), with no difference
between children about to receive corticosteroids or not. Only a
minority of children showed tachycardia at hospital admission (13.7%),
and oxygen saturation at baseline was normal for the majority of the
children (median (IQR) 96 (94-98) % for the whole cohort) with no
difference for children about to receive corticosteroids or not
(p=0.341).