The current study is aimed at developing a symptom scoring system for its application in clinical studies that can discriminate children with cold of an identifiable viral etiology for their upper respiratory tract infection (URI) from those in whom no virus is detected.

The authors collected nasal swabs for PCR testing for identification of respiratory viruses from children aged 2–11 y at baseline, and when parents perceived that their child was developing a cold. The study also contrasted parental-recorded severity of specific symptoms in children with and without a documented viral URI.

The outcome revealed that nasal swabs were acquired from 108 children whose parents reported their child was developing a cold. A viral etiology was identified in 57.4% samples. Symptom measures that best characterized children with a viral etiology from those without were runny nose and substantial cough on days 1–4 of the illness. Furthermore, a URI symptom score was developed on the basis of these symptoms, with a sensitivity of 81.4%, specificity of 61.9%, and accuracy of 73.3%.

Thus, based on the observations it can be believed that parental impression can only be regarded as a moderately accurate predictor of viral URI in children. The URI symptom score conducted in the study established itself as a more appropriate system for identifying children with viral URIs for clinical studies.

Source: Taylor JA, Weber WJ, Martin ET, McCarty RL, Englund JA. Development of a symptom score for clinical studies to identify children with a documented viral upper respiratory tract infection. Pediatr Res. 2010 Sep;68(3):252-7.