[Book review] Barry Mazur, Imagining Numbers: (Particularly the Square Root of Minus Fifteen)

Tony Mann provides a review of the book: Barry Mazur, Imagining Numbers: (Particularly the Square Root of Minus Fifteen), London: Allen Lane, 2003, ISBN: 0713996307

Association of fever and severe clinical course in bronchiolitis

Little attention has been given to the relation between fever and the severity of bronchiolitis. Therefore, the relation between fever and the clinical course of 90 infants (59 boys, 31 girls) hospitalised during one season with bronchiolitis was studied prospectively. Fever (defined as a single recording > 38.0°C or two successive recording > 37.8°C) was present in 28 infants. These infants were older (mean age, 5.3 v 4.0 months), had a longer mean hospital stay (4.2 v2.7 days), and a more severe clinical course (71.0%v 29.0%) than those infants without fever. Radiological abnormalities (collapse/consolidation) were found in 60.7% of the febrile group compared with 14.8% of the afebrile infants. These results suggest that monitoring of body temperature is important in bronchiolitis and that fever is likely to be associated with a more severe clinical course and radiological abnormalities.