Pathogen spectrum and its association with hospital length of stay in 112 pathogen-tested children with bronchiolitis: a retrospective study from a cohort of 132 hospitalized cases in Hebei Children's Hospital

@article{liu2026pathogen,
  title = {{Pathogen spectrum and its association with hospital length of stay in 112 pathogen-tested children with bronchiolitis: a retrospective study from a cohort of 132 hospitalized cases in Hebei Children's Hospital}},
  author = {Xiaojuan Liu and Xiaojuan Liu and Xiaojuan Liu and Xiaojuan Liu and Jianghong Yan and Jianghong Yan and Jianghong Yan and Beibei Cao and Beibei Cao and Yingxue Wang and Yingxue Wang and Hui Xu and Hui Xu and Yingqian Zhang and Yingqian Zhang and Yingqian Zhang},
  journal = {Frontiers in Pediatrics},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  doi = {10.3389/fped.2026.1936138},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2026.1936138},
  note = {CC BY},
}

TY  - JOUR
TI  - Pathogen spectrum and its association with hospital length of stay in 112 pathogen-tested children with bronchiolitis: a retrospective study from a cohort of 132 hospitalized cases in Hebei Children's Hospital
AU  - Xiaojuan Liu
AU  - Xiaojuan Liu
AU  - Xiaojuan Liu
AU  - Xiaojuan Liu
AU  - Jianghong Yan
AU  - Jianghong Yan
AU  - Jianghong Yan
AU  - Beibei Cao
AU  - Beibei Cao
AU  - Yingxue Wang
AU  - Yingxue Wang
AU  - Hui Xu
AU  - Hui Xu
AU  - Yingqian Zhang
AU  - Yingqian Zhang
AU  - Yingqian Zhang
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/11/12
JO  - Frontiers in Pediatrics
DO  - 10.3389/fped.2026.1936138
UR  - https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2026.1936138
AB  - ObjectiveTo investigate the pathogen spectrum and epidemiological characteristics of hospitalized children with bronchiolitis admitted to Hebei Children's Hospital, and to analyze the relationship between different pathogens or mixed infections and clinical recovery speed, providing a clinical reference for the prevention and treatment of infant bronchiolitis in northern China.MethodsBased on the electronic medical record system, the clinical data of 132 children hospitalized with bronchiolitis at Hebei Children's Hospital from September 2022 to February 2025 were retrospectively analyzed. Sputum or nasopharyngeal secretion specimens were collected within 24 h of admission, and multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed to detect common respiratory pathogens. Patients were divided into a pathogen-tested group (112 cases) and a pathogen-untested group (20 cases). The tested group comprised a positive subgroup of 99 cases (77 single infections and 22 mixed infections) and a negative subgroup of 13 cases. Clinical recovery evaluation: clinical recovery speed was evaluated using the hospital length of stay (LOS); patients were categorized into a rapid-recovery group (LOS ≤ 5 days) and a delayed-recovery group (LOS > 5 days). To avoid selection bias arising from missing pathogen data, all analyses examining the association between pathogen profile and LOS were restricted to the 112 pathogen-tested patients; descriptive demographic characteristics (Section 3.1) were based on the full cohort of 132 patients. A subsequent sensitivity analysis (Section 3.1.1) found no statistically significant differences between the 20 untested and 112 tested patients in sex, age, LOS, or rapid-/delayed-recovery group composition, suggesting a limited risk of residual selection bias from this approach.ResultsAmong the 132 children with bronchiolitis, the median age was 6.6 months and the median LOS was 6.0 days. In the tested group (112 cases), the overall positive rate was 88.4% (99/112), with single infection accounting for 68.8% (77/112), mixed infection accounting for 19.6% (22/112), and negative results accounting for 11.6% (13/112). The top three detected pathogens were respiratory syncytial virus (RSV, 54.5%), human rhinovirus (HRV, 31.3%), and parainfluenza virus (PIV, 6.3%), with RSV/HRV (11 cases) being the most common mixed infection. RSV and mixed infections exhibited a bimodal epidemic feature during the study period: in addition to the traditional winter-spring heating season (November to March of the following year), an atypical off-season epidemic peak emerged in May, with a single-month RSV detection rate of 82.1% (23/28). In contrast, hospitalized cases were relatively sparse in other months of the summer-autumn season (June to October). Because case ascertainment was not a complete census in every year and sample sizes were limited, the year-to-year stability of this off-season peak was not confirmed; see Section 2.4 and the Discussion. Within the 112 pathogen-tested patients (rapid-recovery group, n = 52; delayed-recovery group, n = 60), infants < 6 months accounted for 55.8% (29/52) of the rapid-recovery group versus 41.7% (25/60) of the delayed-recovery group (P = 0.1363); RSV positivity was 50.0% (26/52) vs. 58.3% (35/60) (P = 0.3771), HRV positivity was 30.8% (16/52) vs. 31.7% (19/60) (P = 0.9186), and mixed-infection rate was 13.5% (7/52) vs. 25.0% (15/60) (P = 0.1253); none of these differences reached statistical significance.ConclusionRSV and HRV are the core dominant pathogens of hospitalized bronchiolitis in this region. In addition to the traditional winter-spring heating-season peak, an atypical off-season epidemic peak occurred in May, although its year-to-year stability requires further confirmation.
SN  - 2296-2360
ER  -