Primary and secondary ARDS

摘要

The first descriptions of acute respiratory distress syndrome appeared in 1967, when Ashbaugh and colleagues [1] described 12 patients with acute respiratory distress, cyanosis refractory to oxygen therapy, decreased lung compliance, and diffuse infiltrates evident on the chest radiograph. It is not defined by a specific pathogenesis, but reflects the lung's non-selective response to numerous insults and precipitating factors. Based on these observations, the term "syndrome" defined as "group of symptoms and signs of disordered function related to one another by means of some anatomic, physiologic, or biochemical peculiarity" was used. Although the term acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is often used interchangeably with acute lung injury (ALI), by strict criteria ARDS should be reserved for the most severe end of the spectrum (Table 1) [2].