Valor diagnóstico del signo de "cabeceo" en hipoxemia secundaria a neumonía en ni？os

objective. to assess the clinical usefulness of the head nodding sign (hn) in children with pneumonia. material and methods. cross-sectional study that included 62 children aged 2-59 months. hypoxemia was defined as arterial oxygen saturation <94% measured by pulse oximetry. hn was examined with regard to three levels of hypoxemia (<94%, . 90%, . 84%). results. the overall prevalence of hypoxemia was 56.5 %. hn was observed in 64.5% (40) of the patients, 48.4% (30) of those had pneumonia and 73.1% were hypoxemic. hn showed a sensitivity of 73.2% and a specificity of 52.4%. accuracy of hn was better when a cut off level <94% was used. hn in infants was a better index for hypoxemia than for older children. conclusions. hn was a good predictor of hypoxemia in children with pneumonia. it seems that hn is an easily recognizable sign, and it could be easily taught to parents and health workers.