Acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome: experimental and clinical investigations

Chen, Hsing I

Acute lung injury (ALI) or acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a serious clinical problem with high mortality. [1] In animals and humans, ALI can be induced by various causes such as brain injury, [1] [2] [3] [4] enterovirus, [5, 6] Japanese B encephalitis, [7] and coronavirus. [8, 9] The risk factors for ARDS included septicemia, acid aspiration, infection, traumatic injury, fat embolism, ischemia/ reperfusion, and other caused. [1, 6, 8, [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] Our cardiopulmonary laboratory has carried out experimental studies and clinical investigations on ALI and ARDS since 1973. [1] [2] [3] 17, 19, 20] The purposes of this review article are: (1) To describe in brief the historical perspective of ARDS and ALI; (2) To draw attention of an important clinical issue of neurogenic ALI; (3) To present the experimental studies and clinical investigations from our laboratory from 1973 to 2009; (4) To elucidate the functional role of nitric oxide (NO) and other mediators involved in the pathogenesis of ARDS/ALI; (5) To define the risk factors for ARDS and ALI; and (6) To discuss the pathogenetic mechanisms and therapeutic regimen for ARDS/ALI.