Predicting Survival in ARDS.

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a fulminant clinical disorder of varied etiology, characterized by diffuse lung injury and severe hypoxemia. It is a leading cause of ICU admission and the associated high mortality has sparked a lot of research on etiology, outcome, scoring systems, mortality predictors, biomarkers including inflammatory cytokines and even genomics in ARDS. The previously used AECC (American European Consensus Conference) definition (1994) of ARDS was replaced by the recent Berlin definition (2012) so as to improve its validity and reliability.1,2 This would not only standardize patient enrollment into clinical trials but also help implement the results of these trials into clinical practice. Although various studies have shown a reduction in mortality due to ARDS, it has been largely attributed to the general improvement in critical care and the use of lung protection ventilation strategies.3-6 Hence focus on the etiology, co-morbidities, risk factors, complications and mortality predictors, is the need of the hour so as to improve survival. ARDS can occur secondary to multiple causes i.e. either due to direct lung involvement (pneumonia, lung contusion etc) or indirect alveolar damage by inflammatory cytokines (sepsis, trauma, burns, pancreatitis etc.). The causes of ARDS in tropical countries are varied with seasonal variation. Acute febrile illnesses (AFI) like malaria, leptospirosis and dengue usually predominate in the monsoons while H1N1 infection and pneumonias typically peak in the colder winter months. However, malaria, dengue and H1N1 have a potential to be perennial.