The Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Abstract

The adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a common form of acute respiratory failure that has been increasingly reported as associated with a wide variety of medical conditions . Unlike other identifiable pathological events causing severe lung injury, it is now recognized that ARDS is not a single disease, but a complex interaction of pathophysiological events that result in diffuse injury to lung parenchyma.Only through a thorough understanding of ARDS pathophysiology, pathogenesis, and clinical course can medical intervention be instituted in a judicious and timely manner.This review article is intended to provide an overview of the suspected precipitating causes, discrete pathophysiologic changes, and monitorable clinical events associated with ARDS .With mortality from ARDS high, significant attention is being given to improving therapeutic intervention with such conventional measures as mechanical ventilation, positive endexpiratory pressure, and fluid management, along with corticosteroids and several new experimental pharmacologic approaches. Drug Intel/ Clin Pharm 1984;/8: 862-8.

Changes in lung ATP concentration in the rat after low‐level phosgene exposure

“…Inhalation of phosgene can produce diffuse alveolar damage resulting from acylation reactions with components of the air-blood barrier (4). This direct injury is mainly in the alveolar region of the lung, resulting from the reactivity of phosgene with amino, hydroxyl, and sulfhydryl groups in membranes and other cellular constituents (2,5). Even short-term exposures to high concentrations of phosgene can lead to irreversible alveolar-capillary leak and severe clinical consequences (6).…”