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Introduction: Laryngeal web is a rare cause of pediatric stridor and respiratory distress. The clinical presentation is variable and symptoms usually correlate with the severity of the airway obstruction. Case Reports: We describe the cases of three children unexpectedly diagnosed with laryngeal web after a severe episode of bronchiolitis and after thirteen and eleven years, respectively, of persistent symptoms despite asthma medications. Conclusion: Even if it is a rare cause of stridor and respiratory distress, congenital subglottic web could be a life threatening condition and clinicians should always consider it in the differential diagnosis of persistent noisy breathing, even in adolescents and young adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background In this study we sought to evaluate the association between viral bronchiolitis, weather conditions, and air pollution in an urban area in Italy. Methods We included infants hospitalized for acute bronchiolitis from 2004 to 2014. All infants underwent a nasal washing for virus detection. A regional agency network collected meteorological data (mean temperature, relative humidity and wind velocity) and the following air pollutants: sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, benzene and suspended particulate matter measuring less than 10 µm (PM 10 ) and less than 2.5 µm (PM 2.5 ) in aerodynamic diameter. We obtained mean weekly concentration data for the day of admission, from the urban background monitoring sites nearest to each child's home address. Overdispersed Poisson regression model was fitted and adjusted for seasonality of the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection, to evaluate the impact of individual characteristics and environmental factors on the probability of a being positive RSV. Results Of the 723 nasal washings from the infants enrolled, 266 (68%) contained RSV, 63 (16.1%) rhinovirus, 26 (6.6%) human bocavirus, 20 (5.1%) human metapneumovirus, and 16 (2.2%) other viruses. The number of RSV-positive infants correlated negatively with temperature (p < 0.001), and positively with relative humidity (p < 0.001). Air pollutant concentrations differed significantly during the peak RSV months and the other months. Benzene concentration was independently associated with RSV incidence (p = 0.0124). Conclusions Seasonal weather conditions and concentration of air pollutants seem to influence RSV-related bronchiolitis epidemics in an Italian urban area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lung ultrasound has become increasingly used in both adult and pediatric populations, allowing the rapid evaluation of many lung and pleura diseases. This popularity is due to several advantages of the method such as the low cost, rapidity, lack of ionizing radiation, availability of bedside and repeatability of the method. These features are even more important after the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, given the possibility of recognizing through ultrasound the signs of interstitial lung syndrome typical of pneumonia caused by the virus. The purpose of this paper is to review the available evidence of lung ultrasound (LUS) in children and its main applications in pediatric diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To the editor: We have read with great interest the article by Jaworska et al. [[1]] concerning the role of Lung Ultrasound (LUS) in pneumonia and bronchiolitis in children. Actually, timing in performing LUS was controlled in our recent studies [[2]], in which LUS was performed in children with bronchiolitis or pneumonia, only within the first 24 h from admission in the Emergency department. We also confirmed with a recent study [[3]] the role of LUS in the diagnosis of pneumonia, highlighting the role of LUS especially in finding complications of the disease. [Extracted from the article]