[Fulminating adenovirus pneumonia: report of one case]

Adenoviral pneumonia, while most common in infancy and young childhood, is rare in school childhood. Here, we report one case, a 13 years old otherwise healthy girl, suffered from fulminating pneumonia caused by adenovirus infection. She had dry cough, pharyngitis, lethargy, myalgia and fever in the beginning. Four days later, the patient became tachypneic, dyspneic and drowsy, and developed hypoxemia and diffuse bilateral infiltrates on chest radiographs. The laboratory data revealed elevated SGOT, CPK and LDH. Adenovirus was isolated from patient's endotracheal suction tube tips. Fortunately, weaning from mechanical ventilation was accomplished on the fifth day of hospitalization, despite of the high fatality rate of adenoviral pneumonia in this age group. The clinical characteristics and therapeutic management of our case are discussed and literatures reviewed.