Clinical effect of carvedilol in treatment of children with severe hand-foot-mouth disease caused by enterovirus 71 infection

Abstract

To study the clinical effect of carvedilol in the treatment of children with severe hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) caused by enterovirus 71 (EV71) infection. A retrospective analysis was performed for the clinical data of 86 children with severe HFMD caused by EV71 infection who were admitted to the hospital from April 2016 to August 2017. According to whether carvedilol was used, the children were divided into conventional treatment group with 51 children and carvedilol treatment group with 35 children. A total of 56 healthy children who underwent physical examination at the outpatient service during the same period were enrolled as the control group. The two treatment groups were compared in terms of clinical features and levels of catecholamines (norepinephrine, adrenaline and dopamine), and the levels of catecholamines were compared between these two treatment groups and the control group. Before treatment, the conventional treatment group and the carvedilol treatment group had significantly higher levels of norepinephrine and adrenaline than the control group (P<0.05). After treatment, both the conventional treatment group and the carvedilol treatment group had significant reductions in norepinephrine, adrenaline, blood glucose, systolic pressure, diastolic pressure, heart rate, body temperature and leukocyte count (P<0.05). Compared with the conventional treatment group, the carvedilol treatment group had significantly lower dopamine level, blood glucose, heart rate and respiratory rate after treatment (P<0.05). Changes in norepinephrine and adrenaline might be involved in the pathogenesis of severe HFMD caused by EV71 infection. Carvedilol, in addition to the conventional treatment, can improve respiration, heart rate and blood glucose in children with severe HFMD caused by EV71 infection.