Patients

We retrospectively reviewed the electronic medical records of all children admitted between January 2015 and June 2016 with the diagnosis of MPP at the Pediatric Department of Tianjin Nankai Hospital, one of the largest tertiary hospitals of Tianjin City and a teaching hospital of Tianjin Medical University. The data obtained from the records included age, gender, history of present illness, physical examination, laboratory findings, and chest radiographs of all patients. A total of 102 hospitalized children were diagnosed with MPP. Of these patients, 87 children (85.3%, 87/102) with the required complete data were included into this study for further analysis. With the exception of azithromycin, other antibiotics and steroids were not used before hospitalization. All patients received azithromycin, while all patients with pleural effusion and some of those with lobar/segmental MPP received glucocorticoids during the hospitalization period. The study protocol was approved by the ethics committee of Tianjin Nankai Hospital, and patient informed consent was obtained from the patient’s parents.