Finnish nationwide controlled register study found increased inpatient infections in children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.

Aim: Studies on treating infections in children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) have been limited. We characterised inpatient infections and outpatient antibiotic treatment.

Methods: Children born during 2005-2018 were eligible for this national Finnish retrospective register-based study. We recruited 98 children (54% male) with DiGeorge or velocardiofacial syndrome. The 980 matched controls had a benign murmur diagnosed before 1 year of age. The cumulative incidence of infections and antibiotic prescriptions and total prescriptions were measured.

Results: The median age for 22q11.2DS diagnoses was under 1 year of age (range 0-14 years), with a median follow-up time of 9 years for diagnoses and 11 years for prescriptions. Children with 22q11.2DS had significantly higher hospitalisation rates than the controls for any infection (68.1% vs. 30.5%), gastroenteritis (16.8% vs. 4.0%), pneumonia (23.4% vs. 4.3%), severe bacterial infections, excluding pneumonia or pyelonephritis (15.0% vs. 4.1%) and viral wheezing (23.2% vs. 9.1%). Outpatient antibiotic prescriptions were similar, but the children with 22q11.2DS received them earlier than the controls, with a hazard ratio of 3.29 for ages 0-5 years and 1.84 for the entire follow-up.

Conclusion: Children with 22q11.2DS had significantly more infections requiring hospitalisation than controls without the syndrome.