The following is a summary of “Incidence and clinical features of HHV-7 detection in lower respiratory tract in patients with severe pneumonia: a multicenter, retrospective study ,” published in the June 2023 issue of Critical Care by Xu et al.

Researchers performed a retrospective study to assess the clinical characteristics and prognosis associated with the detection of HHV-7 in the lower respiratory tract of patients diagnosed with severe pneumonia. Clinical data were collected, and subgroup analysis and mortality assessment were performed using propensity score matching. Study spanned between January 2019 to March 2023 that involved 12 medical centers. 

In a group of 721 patients, 45 cases (6.24%) were reported as HHV-positive. Most of them exhibited a younger age (mean age: 59.2 vs. 64.4, P= 0.032) and a higher incidence of co-detection with Cytomegalovirus (42.2% vs. 20.7%, P= 0.001) and Epstein–Barr virus (35.6% vs 18.2%, P= 0.008). Propensity score matching revealed no statistically significant disparity in the 28-day mortality rate between patients who tested positive for HHV-7 and those who tested negative (46.2% vs. 36.0%, P = 0.395), which was based on gender, age, and SOFA score. 

Multivariate Cox regression analysis determined that HHV-7 positive was not an independent risk factor for 28-day mortality (HR 1.783, 95% CI 0.936–3.400, P= 0.079).

They concluded severe pneumonia patients need invasive mechanical ventilation, and HHV-7 was found in 6.24% of lung cases. Its presence correlated with younger age and co-detection of Cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr virus, but it was not independently linked to mortality risk.

Source: ccforum.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13054-023-04530-6