X-rays show shared symptoms among bird flu victims

December 3, 2005

X-rays show shared symptoms among bird flu victims Fri Dec 2,12:54 PM

ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The lungs of avian flu victims are racked by

infections, clogged with pus and surrounded by fluid, and the

severity of the symptoms can predict whether the patients will

survive, researchers said on Friday.

Based on chest X-rays performed on 14 Vietnamese bird flu patients

admitted to Ho Chi Minh City Hospital -- nine of whom died --

researchers at the University of Oxford in England found shared

abnormalities that were good predictors of whether the disease would

be fatal.

The infection from the H5N1 avian flu virus caused multiple lung

infections, " which usually represents pus and infection in patients

with fever and a cough, " radiologist Dr. Nagmi Qureshi said. " We also

discovered that the severity of these findings turned out to be a

good predictor of patient mortality. "

The avian flu virus has infected 133 people in Asia since late 2003

and killed 68 of them. Several countries in the region are regularly

reporting more suspected cases in people and outbreaks in poultry.

Scientists fear the avian flu virus H5N1 could kill millions of

people if it mutates into a form that passes easily among humans. The

regular flu vaccine is useless against avian flu and there is no

cure, although drugs can help reduce its severity.

Three of the five surviving patients in the study, which was

presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North

America, underwent more detailed computed tomography (CT) exams after

they left the hospital.

Those images showed that while their respiratory symptoms had

subsided, scar tissue formed in their lungs similar to damage

suffered by victims of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or

SARS, which broke out in 30 countries in 2003 and infected 8,400

people, killing about 800 of them.

" However, additional abnormalities we discovered in avian flu

patients -- including fluid in the space surrounding the lungs,

enlarged lymph nodes and cavities forming in the lung tissue -- were

absent in patients with SARS, " Qureshi said.

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