Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Introduction
Medical advances have led to an increase in the world's population of immunosuppressed individuals. The most severely immunocompromised patients are those who have been diagnosed with a hematologic malignancy, solid organ tumor, or who have other conditions that require immunosuppressive therapies and/or solid organ or stem cell transplants.Materials and methods
Medically attended patients with a positive clinical diagnosis of influenza were recruited prospectively and clinically evaluated. Nasal washes and serum were collected. Evaluation of viral shedding, nasal and serum cytokines, clinical illness, and clinical outcomes were performed to compare severely immunocompromised individuals to nonimmunocompromised individuals with influenza infection.Results
Immunocompromised patients with influenza had more severe disease/complications, longer viral shedding, and more antiviral resistance while demonstrating less clinical symptoms and signs on clinical assessment.Conclusions
Immunocompromised patients are at risk for more severe or complicated influenza induced disease, which may be difficult to prevent with existing vaccines and antiviral treatments. Specific issues to consider when managing a severely immunocompromised host include the development of asymptomatic shedding, multi-drug resistance during prolonged antiviral therapy, and the potential high risk of pulmonary involvement.Clinical trials registration
ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT00533182.
SUBMITTER: Memoli MJ
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3871797 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature