Short treatment courses of ACS have been shown to be of no demonstrable value in the treatment of ARDS. We gave two patients with persistant ARDS a trial of ACS after they demonstrated pulmonary uptake of 67Ga. Brief initial improvement disappeared with tapering of the ACS. A sustained course of ACS led to resolution of the ARDS in both patients. In all, ten patients with established ARDS were ...

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) complicates nosocomial pneumonias (NPn) in 12% to 33% of patients with associated increases in mortality of up to 80%. A timely diagnosis of ARDS with NPn is, however, problematic. The aim of this investigation was to improve the diagnosis and treatment of the early stages of ARDS with NPn. A total of 82 cancer and multiple trauma patients were enrolle...

volumes (V T ) to be low in patients in Brazilian ICUs. By showing this, it is clear that ventilation practice in Brazil mirrors worldwide changes, at least with regard to V T in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) [2,3]. Eff orts to implement protective ventilation have been largely restricted to patients with ARDS, which is understandable since its benefi cial eff ects we...

INTRODUCTION Pulmonary vascular endothelial activation has been implicated in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), yet little is known about the presence and role of endothelial activation markers in the alveolar space in ARDS. We hypothesized that endothelial activation biomarkers would be differentially expressed in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from patients with ARDS compared with hea...

BACKGROUND Early detection of the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) has the potential to improve the prognosis of critically ill patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). However, no reliable biomarkers are currently available for accurate early detection of ARDS in patients with predisposing conditions. OBJECTIVES This study examined risk factors and biomarkers for ARDS de...

The acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a relatively common, inflammatory lung disorder that is associated with major morbidity and high mortality. The pathogenesis of ARDS is complex, and unfortunately, the development of ARDS in an individual patient is difficult to anticipate. In this chapter, we outline the rationale for why accurately predicting the development of ARDS would be v...

The ARDS Support Center (developed by Ken Jonah, an acute respiratory distress syndrome [ARDS] survivor, and supported by donations from ARDS survivors and ARDS victims’ families) is a website devoted to providing relevant medical information and emotional support to survivors of ARDS and to patients’ families. In reviewing this site, we browsed through the online offerings and assessed the inf...

BACKGROUND Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) prevalence and related outcomes in burned military casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan have not been described previously. The objective of this article was to report ARDS prevalence and its associated in-hospital mortality in military burn patients. METHODS Demographic and physiologic data were collected retrospectively on mechanically v...

INTRODUCTION We assessed rates and predictive factors of non-invasive ventilation (NIV) failure in patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) for non-hypercapnic acute hypoxemic respiratory failure (AHRF). METHODS This is an observational cohort study using data prospectively collected over a three-year period in a medical ICU of a university hospital. RESULTS Among 113 patients rec...

BACKGROUND Hyperbilirubinaemia is a common complication of sepsis. Elevated bilirubin may induce inflammation and apoptosis. It was hypothesised that increased serum bilirubin on Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission contributes to sepsis-related acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). METHODS Serum bilirubin on ICU admission was measured in 1006 patients with sepsis. Serial serum bilirubin...