Clinical presentation of parvovirus B19 infection in children with aplastic crisis

• Published in: The Pediatric infectious disease journal Vol. 22; no. 12; p. 1100
• Main Authors: Kellermayer, Richard, Faden, Howard, Grossi, Mauro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.12.2003
• Subjects: Adolescent; Anemia, Aplastic - etiology; Anemia, Aplastic - physiopathology; Anemia, Sickle Cell - complications; Anemia, Sickle Cell - diagnosis; Case-Control Studies; Child; Child, Preschool; Erythema Infectiosum - complications; Erythema Infectiosum - diagnosis; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Incidence; Male; Parvovirus B19, Human - isolation & purification; Probability; Reference Values; Retrospective Studies; Risk Assessment; Severity of Illness Index; Spherocytosis, Hereditary - complications; Spherocytosis, Hereditary - diagnosis
• ISSN: 0891-3668
• DOI: 10.1097/01.inf.0000101783.73240.4a

The records of 22 children with parvovirus B19-induced aplastic crisis were reviewed. The group consisted of 16 children with sickle cell hemoglobinopathies and 6 with hereditary spherocytosis. Children presented to the hospital 0.5 to 8 days (mean, 2.4 days) after the onset of symptoms. The children with sickle-cell disease presented earlier (mean, 1.4 days) than did children with hereditary spherocytosis (mean, 5 days; P = 0.02. Fever was the most common symptom, occurring in 73% of children. Rash did not occur in either group. Reticulocyte counts began to rise 1 week after onset of illness associated with a rise in parvovirus B19-specific IgG antibody. These data suggest that parvovirus B19 infection in children with sickle-cell hemoglobinopathies and heredity spherocytosis differs from infection in normal children.