  The thermodynamic potential of a system of pions and nucleons is computed
including the piN interactions in the P33 channel. A consistent treatment of
the width of the resonance in this channel, the Delta(1232) resonance, is
explored in detail. In the low-density limit we recover the leading term of the
virial expansion for the thermodynamic potential. An instructive diagrammatic
interpretation of the contributions to the total baryon number is presented.
Furthermore, we examine within a fireball model the consequences for the pion
spectra in heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies, including the effect
of collective flow. A consistent treatment of the Delta width leads to a
substantial enhancement of the pion yield at low momenta.
