Objective: To investigate the clinical and prognostic features of
patients admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) with pandemic 2009
influenza A (H1N1) virus. Methods: Patients admitted to the intensive
care unit for severe pneumonia associated with pandemic 2009 influenza
A (H1N1) virus were evaluated. Results: The study included 20 patients
with the mean age of 36±13. Of the 20 subjects, 17 (85%) had
underlying conditions. Of the 20 patients, 11(55%) were discharged and
9 (45%) died. Cardinal symptoms were fever, myalgia, and hemoptysis
with the rates of 85 %, 75 % and 45 %, respectively. All patients had
pneumonic infiltrations in their chest roentgenograms. Main laboratory
findings were lymphopenia, high creatin phosphokinase (CPK) and Lactate
dehydrogenase (LDH) levels. All patients had positivity on real time
reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). None of the
patients had pandemic 2009 influenza A (H1N1) virus vaccination. None
of them had taken oseltamivir within 48 hours. Main reasons for
mortality were cardiovascular complications and ventilatory associated
pneumonia due to Acynetobacter baumannii. Conclusion: Early diagnosis
and antiviral treatment in these cases seem to be the best approach to
avoid serious illness. Special attention should be given to patients
having underlying conditions such as cardiovascular and pulmonary
diseases and pregnancy
