OBJECTIVETo study the characteristics of viral spectrum and clinical features of children in pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).

METHODNasopharyngeal aspirate specimens (NPA) from 349 patients(1 from each) and 130 cerebrospinal fluids (CSF) specimens were collected from children who were admitted to the PICU of Second Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College. Additional 87 NPA specimens were collected from healthy children for routine examination on the physical examination center, and the clinical data were collected. Multiplex PCR was applied to detect 16 kinds of viruses from NPA and CSF. Fluorescence quantitative PCR was applied to detect 13 viruses from CSF and to analyze the clinical data of positive cases.

RESULTThere were 209 samples (59.9%) of the 349 NPA specimens were positive for viruses, which included 117 cases positive for human rhinovirus (HRV), 60 for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), 20 for influenza virus A (Inf A), 10 for adenovirus (ADV), 6 for parainfluenza virus type 3(PIV-3), 6 for human Boca virus (HBoV), 5 for influenza virus C(Inf C), 4 for parainfluenza virus type 4(PIV-4), 4 for human coronavirus-HKU1/OC43, 3 for influenza virus B (Inf B), 3 for WU Polyomavirus (WUPyV), 2 parainfluenza virus type 1(PIV-1), 2 human metapneumovirus (HMPV) and 1 human coronavirus-NL63/229E. But none from 87 healthy controls were positive for any respiratory virus. Among the 130 CSF specimens, in 58 cases the diagnosis was viral encephalitis. There were 22 samples (37.9%) among the 58 CSF specimens positive for viruses, which included 14 enterovirus (EV), 3 human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), 2 mumps virus, 1 coxsackie virus A16 (Cox-A16), 1 herpes simplex virus (HSV) and 1 human rhinovirus (HRV). The total positive rate was 63.3% (221/349) . Co-infection by at least 2 viral pathogens under study was observed in 45 of the 349 patients (12.9% of the total number of cases, 20.4% of the positives cases). The commonest pathogens in co-infected samples were WUPyV (100%) and HMPV(100%). The positive rate of virus peaked in the first 6 months of life, the rate in boys were higher than in girls and the peak season was summer. The numbers of none serious cases in the virus positive group were less than those in the virus negative group while the numbers of extremely serious cases in the virus positive group were higher than in the virus negative group.

CONCLUSIONViral pathogen is a major cause of infectious disease in pediatric critical illnesses and virus infection may lead to severe illness.