Table 1.

Clinical characteristics of study patients and ventilatory parameters at time of herpes simplex type 1 (HSV-1) isolation from tracheal aspirate (TA) or bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL).

Patient	1	2	3	4
Date	September 2001	November 2001	November 2001	February 2002
General parameters:
Age	45	19	84	78
Gender	♀	♂	♀	♂
Underlying disease		nasopharyngeal carcinoma	hypertension	heart failure
Reason of admission	pneumonia of unknown origin; respiratory failure	septic shock; ALI/respiratory failure	aspiration pneumonia; respiratory failure and shock	Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia
Comorbidity		heart failure	heart failure	prior coronary artery surgery
Prior chemotherapy/radiotherapy		+
Duration of mechanical ventilation prior to isolation, d	13	5	10	1
Duration mechanical ventilation after isolation, d	8	1	11	6
Length of stay ICU, d	26	8	21	42
Infectious parameters:
Duration between sampling and reporting positive cultures, d	5	1	1	1
Respiratory source of HSV-1	BAL	TA	TA	TA
Other sources of HSV-1	throat, skin	throat
Leukocytes in Gram stain of BAL/TA fluids	few lymphocytes	few	moderate	few
Bacteria in culture	S. aureus ++, C. albicans +	C. albicans ++	multiresistant P. aeruginosa, E. coli	no micro-organisms
Serology	high titre IgG
Body temperature, °C	37.4	36.2	37.2	38.2
Blood leukocytes, × 109/L	16.2	4.5	9.5	16.4
Antiviral therapy	acyclovir		acyclovir
Treatment with steroids	prednison
Respiratory parameters:
Arterial PO2/inspiratory FO2, mm Hg	345	195	190	98
Plateau airway pressure, cm H2O	33	22	22	20
Positive end-expiratory airway pressure, cm H2O	12	7	7	5
Total respiratory compliance, mL/cm H2O	21	31	31
Radiographic score	4	4	3	4
Lung injury score	2.5	2.5	2.2	2.3
Central venous pressure, mm Hg	10	8
Pulmonary leak index, × 10-3/min	10.5	7.5	8.0	14.0
Duration between sampling and PLI, d	0	0	1	2