Acute Lung Injury and the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

In 2005, the American Thoracic Society marks its 100th year of existence. For over a third of this span, since 1967, clinicians and investigators have struggled with a common, often lethal condition originally termed the adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) (1).* While the syndrome almost certainly occurred in earlier times well before the advent of intensive care units, this date establishes its modern era. Subsequently, ARDS has more correctly come to indicate the acute respiratory distress syndrome because it occurs in children as well as in adults (2). ARDS causes severe acute respiratory failure with dynamic impairment in oxygen and carbon dioxide transfer, with the need for high levels of…

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  National Institutes of Health