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Respiratory syncytial virus as a trigger of a pulmonary hypertensive crisis after operative correction of aortic coarctation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2007

Jussara B. Castelli
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Pathology, Heart Institute (InCor), University of São Paulo Medical School, São Paulo, Brazil
Wilma T. Maeda
Affiliation:
Paediatric Cardiology Unit, Heart Institute (InCor), University of São Paulo Medical School, São Paulo, Brazil
Vera D. Aiello
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Pathology, Heart Institute (InCor), University of São Paulo Medical School, São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

We discuss a 9-month-old male baby, submitted to surgery for correction of aortic coarctation, who showed severe bronchospasm, hypoxaemia, and cardio-respiratory arrest, and who died on the fifth postoperative day. The autopsy revealed histological signs of severe pulmonary vasoconstriction, possibly as a consequence of hypoxaemia secondary to bronchiolitis due to infection with the respiratory syncytial virus. This supposition was confirmed when viruses were detected in pulmonary tissue by immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy.

Type
Brief Report
Copyright
© 2007 Cambridge University Press

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