Corticosteroid therapy in acute respiratory distress syndrome

摘要

Because acute respiratory distress syndrome (Figure 1) affects up to 150 000 patients and causes 60 000 deaths each year in the United States, the interest in potential therapies for this syndrome is high. Despite many candidate pharmacological interventions such as ketoconazole, lisofylline and inhaled nitric oxide, no drug has conclusively been shown to reduce mortality associated with the condition. However, some experts believe that corticosteroids constitute an exception to this rule, and have recommended corticosteroid therapy for severe cases of early (< 14 d) disease.