Abstract

BACKGROUND: The techniques for recognising pneumonia in mechanically ventilated patients were evaluated as no "gold standard" is available to establish the diagnosis in these patients. METHODS: A prospective study was performed on nine brain dead organ donors not suspected of having pneumonia to assess the specificity of bacteriological results from different samples by comparing them with the histological findings from an open pulmonary biopsy specimen taken immediately after death through a mini-thoracotomy. RESULTS: Seven of the nine organ donors without clinical evidence of pulmonary infection and not on antibiotic therapy showed histological features of bronchopneumonia. There was no association between the histological findings and quantitative cultures of the lung biopsy specimen. CONCLUSIONS: Histological evidence of pneumonia was common in this group of ventilated patients who had no clinical signs of the disease.