Mechanical ventilation and lung infection in the genesis of air-space enlargement

Table 1 Clinical characteristics of the four groups of piglets

Clinical characteristic	Group				p value
	Control	NVI	VNI	VI
Number of animals	5	6	6	8
Weight (kg)	21 ± 2	19 ± 1	22 ± 2	22 ± 2	NS
Duration of mechanical ventilation (minutes)			3,600	2,505 ± 883
Ventilation for inoculation (minutes)		144 ± 43
Ventilation for sacrifice (minutes)	28 ± 3	8 ± 6
Inoculum of Escherichia coli (cfu/ml)	0	10⁶	0	10⁶
Infected piglets (n)	0	6	5	8
Death before the end of the protocol (n)	0	0	0	5
Functional residual capacity (ml)	331 ± 51	303 ± 52	240 ± 90	184 ± 97^a,b	<0.05
Weight of lung after death (g)	97 ± 22^b	128 ± 10	160 ± 64^a	281 ± 105^a,b	<0.01

^ap < 0.05 versus control; ^bp < 0.05 versus NVI. Data are expressed as mean ± standard deviation. cfu, colony-forming units; NS, not significant; NVI, non-ventilated-inoculated piglets; VI, ventilated-inoculated piglets; VNI, ventilated-non-inoculated piglets.

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