Table 1.
Clinical characteristics of the four groups of piglets
| Clinical characteristic | Group | p value | |||
| Control | NVI | VNI | VI | ||
| Number of animals | 5 | 6 | 6 | 8 | |
| Weight (kg) | 21 ± 2 | 19 ± 1 | 22 ± 2 | 22 ± 2 | NS |
| Duration of mechanical ventilation (minutes) | 3,600 | 2,505 ± 883 | |||
| Ventilation for inoculation (minutes) | 144 ± 43 | ||||
| Ventilation for sacrifice (minutes) | 28 ± 3 | 8 ± 6 | |||
| Inoculum of Escherichia coli (cfu/ml) | 0 | 106 | 0 | 106 | |
| Infected piglets (n) | 0 | 6 | 5 | 8 | |
| Death before the end of the protocol (n) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | |
| Functional residual capacity (ml) | 331 ± 51 | 303 ± 52 | 240 ± 90 | 184 ± 97a,b | <0.05 |
| Weight of lung after death (g) | 97 ± 22b | 128 ± 10 | 160 ± 64a | 281 ± 105a,b | <0.01 |
ap < 0.05 versus control; bp < 0.05 versus NVI. Data are expressed as mean ± standard deviation. cfu, colony-forming units; NS, not significant; NVI, non-ventilated-inoculated piglets; VI, ventilated-inoculated piglets; VNI, ventilated-non-inoculated piglets.