ABSTRACT
Thirty children with respiratory syncytial virus [RSV] infection were studied prospectively during the period 2002-2003. Some of them were intubated and needed ICU stay [n = 12]. The rest were not intubated [n = 18]. Nasal wash [NW] samples were obtained from all these 30 children on days 1 and 3 in addition to tracheal aspirate [TA] samples from the intubated patients also on days 1 and 3 of hospitalization. Ten healthy children were served as controls and were chosen from those undergoing elective surgery. All samples were analyzed for WBC and differential counts; concentrations of RANTES [regulated on activation, normal T cell expressed and presumably secreted], macrophage-inflammatory protein-1-alpha [MIP-1-alpha], interleukin-6 [IL-6], IL-8 and IL-10 and quantitative RSV cultures, except in the control patients