Exclusion’s criteria
Patients were excluded from the study if they met one or more of the
following criteria: not diagnosed with ARDS; not diagnosed with
influenza A (H1N1); age younger than 18 years; evidence of acute
myocardial infarction; cardiac arrhythmias (supraventricular tachycardia
> 140 beats/min or complex ventricular ectopy) and heart
failure. Patients with other causes of ARDS were excluded from the study
since we wanted to investigate Influenza A (H1N1)-ARDS patients due to
the lack of data within this specific group.