[Fatal adenovirus pneumonia].

Adenoviruses are well known and ubiquitous causes of respiratory illness in children. Serious long-term sequelae and even fatalities have been described in young children affected by adenoviral infections of the respiratory tract. This is a report on clinical and histopathological features of 25 infants dying from acute lower respiratory tract infections apparently caused by adenoviruses, from January 1st 1983 through December 31st 1986. The diagnosis was based on the finding of distinctive intranuclear inclusions in the pulmonary lesions that were present in all 25 cases at necropsy. Necrotizing bronchiolitis was found in 24 patients (96%). Nineteen patients (76%) were younger than 1 year of age and 15 (60%) had underlying malnutrition. In 17 instances (68%) the respiratory illness was nosocomial in origin. A specific etiologic diagnosis was not made in any of the 25 patients during the course of the illness, twenty four of them (96%) received various antimicrobial drugs without success.