Rapid CommunicationImage Findings of Patients with H1N1 Virus Pneumonia and Acute Respiratory Failure
Section snippets
Study Population
In 2009, 10 patients at our institution required ICU treatment for laboratory-confirmed H1N1 virus pneumonia. All 10 patients had initially presented with influenza-like illness, thereby fulfilling the clinical criteria for diagnosing new influenza A infection as established by the Robert Koch Institute. Our study group of patients consisted of six men and four women with a mean age of 44.1 ± 12.3 years. Preexisting medical conditions were present in three patients, including one patient with
Results
The chest radiographic and high-resolution computed tomographic images available for review were obtained an average of 4 days after ICU admission. All 10 patients showed abnormal findings on chest radiography. The abnormalities were bilateral and multifocal in all patients. These findings consisted of consolidations (n = 9), ground-glass opacities (n = 8), reticular opacities (n = 2), and pleural effusion (n = 8). One patient also showed atelectasis in the left lower zone.
All patients
Discussion
Seasonal influenza is an acute respiratory illness that occurs particularly during the winter months. Influenza virus belongs to the orthomyxovirus family of ribonucleic acid viruses, and human disease is predominantly caused by types A and B (8). Type A virus is the most virulent and can easily mutate. Three subtypes of the virus are currently circulating among humans (H1N1, H1N2, and H3N2) (9). The novel H1N1 virus has features of North American and Eurasian swine, avian, and human influenza
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