Fast breathing in the diagnosis of pneumonia נשימה מהירה בדיאגנוזה של דלקת ריאות EXTREMELY IMPORTANT for all families with children: IT IS UTTERMOST RELIABLE ,BETTER THEN THE STETHOSCOPE OR X-RAYS!! MOST OF THE PATIENT KNOW IT ALREADY[STENCIL IN HEBREW WE DISTRIBUTE IN THE CLINIC] EXTREMELY IMPORTANT I HOPE TO EXPLAIN THIS SCHEME SOME MORE IN THE FUTURE. IT IS UTTERMOST RELIABLE ,OFTEN BETTER THEN THE STETHOSCOPE OR X-RAYS!! MOST OF THE PATIENT ARE ALREADY FAMILIAR WITH IT [STENCIL IN HEBREW WE DISTRIBUTE IN THE CLINIC] Fast breathing in the diagnosis of pneumonia [W.H.O SCHEME[WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION],WHICH I AM USING FOR 15 YEARS OR MORE] MY SCHEME : COUNT A FULL MINUTE PREFERABLE DURING SLEEP . IN AND OUT = ONE BREATHING MAXIMUM [BREATHING FREQUENCY PER MINUTE] BELOW 2 MONTHS : MAXIMUM 60 2 MO - 1 YEAR: MAXIMUM 50 1-3 YEAR: MAXIMUM 40 3-5 YEAR: MAXIMUM 30 PLEASE PRINT THIS OUT AND STICK IT ONE YOUR MEDICINE BOX. THIS FOLLOWING ARTICLE WAS JUST PUBLISHED: [AND IS VIRTUALLY THE SAME AS WE ARE USING] In this hospital-based prospective study, a total of 222 children presenting with cough and/or breathlessness were screened for presence of lower respiratory infection. All clinically-detected cases of LRI and every fifth case of URI were investigated. Pneumonia was defined as presence of abnormal shadows on chest roentgenograms, against which the clinical symptoms and signs were assessed for their utility in the diagnosis of pneumonia. Fast breathing was found to be the most useful sign predicting pneumonia in all age groups. Cut-off points at 50 breaths/min for infants including neonates, 40 breaths/min for children aged 12-35 months, and 30 breaths/min for children aged 36-60 months indicated presence of pneumonia. Crepitations on auscultation of chest was found to have good correlation with presence of radiological pneumonia. Other signs like chest indrawing and cyanosis were found to be highly specific signs in detecting pneumonia, but had low sensitivity. Pages: 196 - 199 Part of the OUP Journal of Tropical Pediatrics WWW service Published by Oxford University Press Copyright ©Oxford reassessment D. Gupta, S. Mishra and P. Chaturvedi Department of Paediatrics, Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences Sevagram, Wardha-442 102 (MS), India and Corresponding author ABSTRACT