Acute respiratory distress syndrome

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a life-threatening form of lung failure in which widespread inflammation damages the air–blood barrier and impairs oxygen exchange.

Alveolar-capillary barrier: The thin interface between alveolar air and pulmonary blood where oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged. Inflammatory injury to this interface lets fluid and proteins enter the air sacs.
Berlin definition: A clinical definition that classifies ARDS by timing, imaging, origin of edema, and severity of oxygenation impairment. It supplies widely used criteria for diagnosing and grading the syndrome.
Lung-protective ventilation: Mechanical ventilation using low tidal volumes and pressure limits to reduce ventilator-related lung injury. This approach lowers the risk that ventilation will worsen ARDS lung damage.
Sepsis: Life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated response to infection. Sepsis is a common systemic trigger of ARDS.
Acute lung injury: A broad term for sudden inflammatory lung damage that impairs oxygen exchange. ARDS is the defined severe syndrome once associated diagnostic criteria are met.
Pulmonary edema: Excess fluid in the lung tissue or air spaces that interferes with breathing and gas exchange. In ARDS, increased barrier permeability causes fluid to accumulate in alveoli.
PaO₂/FiO₂ ratio: The ratio of arterial oxygen pressure to the fraction of oxygen in inspired gas, used to assess oxygenation. The Berlin definition uses this ratio to classify ARDS severity.
Positive end-expiratory pressure: Airway pressure maintained at the end of exhalation to help keep alveoli open. Appropriate pressure can recruit collapsed air sacs and improve oxygenation.
Pneumonia: An infection that inflames the air sacs in one or both lungs. Severe lung infection can directly trigger the inflammation and injury of ARDS.
Neonatal respiratory distress syndrome: A newborn lung disorder commonly caused by insufficient pulmonary surfactant in premature infants. Despite the similar name, it is chiefly a developmental surfactant deficiency, not adult-type ARDS.

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