{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,5]],"date-time":"2026-02-05T10:36:37Z","timestamp":1770287797331,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,7]],"date-time":"2024-05-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1715040000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Diagnostics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Medical overuse poses potential risks to patients and contributes to increasing healthcare costs, pediatric emergency departments (PED) in particular. Often, upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) cases are viral-induced and self-limiting, and they do not require specific investigations or treatment. We conducted a retrospective study from 1 December 2021 to 31 January 2022, thereby aiming to identify the common tests and factors influencing specific diagnostic and treatment decisions for URTI in PED. In total, 307 (74.9%) URTI cases underwent complete blood count (CBC) tests, 312 (76.1%) were subjected to C-reactive protein (CRP) tests, and 110 (26.8%) received urinalysis tests. Patients with a longer duration of fever and a physician\u2018s suspicion of bacterial infection were more likely to receive CBC, CRP, and\/or urinalysis tests (p &lt; 0.05). Moreover, 75.1% of the cases were classified as viral URTIs, 9.8% were bacterial URTIs, and 15.1% were unspecified. Notably, 86 (20.1%) children received antibiotics and antibiotic prescription correlated with age, tonsillitis diagnosis, CRP values higher than 30 mg\/L, and a CBC of p &lt; 0.05. Patients triaged in the second or third categories were three times more likely to be observed for 24 h compared to patients with URTI and the fourth triage category (p &lt; 0.05). This study highlights the need for interventions to improve the appropriateness of emergency service utilization, thereby emphasizing the importance of judicious decision making in managing pediatric URTIs.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/diagnostics14100970","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,7]],"date-time":"2024-05-07T06:53:27Z","timestamp":1715064807000},"page":"970","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Assessment of Medical Test Overuse and Its Impact on Pediatric Emergency Department Outcomes in Upper Respiratory Tract Infections in a University Hospital in Lithuania"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Melita","family":"Nedzinskaite","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatrics, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, 44307 Kaunas, Lithuania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Dagna","family":"Karakaite","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Medicine, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, 44307 Kaunas, Lithuania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Erika","family":"Zubrickyte","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Medicine, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, 44307 Kaunas, Lithuania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6997-4917","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lina","family":"Jankauskaite","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatrics, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, 44307 Kaunas, Lithuania"},{"name":"Department of Pediatrics, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Kaunas Clinics, 50103 Kaunas, Lithuania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"945540","DOI":"10.3389\/fped.2022.945540","article-title":"Overuse of medical care in paediatrics: A survey from five countries in the European Academy of Pediatrics","volume":"10","author":"Jankauskaite","year":"2022","journal-title":"Front. 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