[Acute respiratory infections in children who have died and the role of the DIC syndrome in these diseases].

The results of several years study of the acute respiratory infections (ARI) (pneumonias) are summarized. Their high frequency in dying children is found (72% of autopsy cases in all Leningrad pediatric hospitals). Their etiology is usually complex: viral ARI were in 62.9%, bacterial--56.1%, mycoplasma--8.9%. Structural changes are described in some poorly known ARI (herpetic, cytomegalic, pneumocystic). The distribution of various ARI between hospitals and the etiology of children pneumonia in cases of the death at home (381 cases) or in hospitals (447 cases) are analysed when the autopsy was performed in the same pathology department with detail laboratory investigation. Pneumonias in these groups differed in the etiology and manifestations, first because of bacterial infections. In 114 children the incidence and manifestations of DIC syndrome were studied and this syndrome was shown to have a considerable importance in thanatogenesis particularly during first days of the disease and when the generalization of infections occurs.