OBJECTIVE To test whether steroids reduce respiratory distress in babies born by elective caesarean section at term. DESIGN Multicentre pragmatic randomised trial. SETTING 10 maternity units. PARTICIPANTS 998 consenting women randomised at decision to deliver by elective caesarean section; 503 randomised to treatment group. INTERVENTIONS The treatment group received two intramuscular do...

Respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) is seen primarily in the preterm neonate and is due mostly to pulmonary surfactant deficiency. Lung atelectasis leads to ventilationperfusion mismatching, hypoxia, and eventual respiratory failure in the untreated infant who has RDS. RDS is diagnosed by physical findings consistent with respiratory distress and characteristic radiographic findings. Treatment ...

ACUTE RESPIRATORY DISTRESS SYNDROME (ARDS) is a clinical condition characterized by impaired gas exchange as a result of the accumulation of edema in the alveolar space. The clinical management of ARDS patients includes mechanical ventilation with high oxygen concentrations. Mechanical ventilation alleviates the work of breathing and hypoxemia while allowing time for the lungs to recover from t...

VALID AND RELIABLE DEFINItions are essential to conduct epidemiological studies successful ly and to facilitate enrollment of a consistent patient phenotype into clinical trials. Clinicians also need such definitions to implement the results of clinical trials, discuss prognosis with families, and plan resource allocation. Following the initial description of acute respiratory distress syndrome...

ACCP Critical Care Board Review 2003 T acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and the related acute lung injury (ALI) syndromes are forms of Type I or acute hypoxemic respiratory failure (AHRF). This form of lung dysfunction rises from diseases causing collapse and/or filling of alveoli with the result that a substantial fraction of mixed venous blood traverses nonventilated airspaces, effe...

Newborn respiratory distress presents a diagnostic and management challenge. Newborns with respiratory distress commonly exhibit tachypnea with a respiratory rate of more than 60 respirations per minute. They may present with grunting, retractions, nasal flaring, and cyanosis. Common causes include transient tachypnea of the newborn, respiratory distress syndrome, meconium aspiration syndrome, ...

INTRODUCTION Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is characterised by lung inflammation with severe hypoxia, which usually develops over 4-48 hours and persists for days or weeks. The main causes of ARDS are infections, aspiration of gastric contents, and trauma. Between a third and a half of people with ARDS die from the disease, but mortality depends on the underlying cause. Some surviv...

A 60-year-old man was referred to the thoracic surgery service with a large mass in the right upper lobe of his lung. He had a 4-week history of productive cough and hemoptysis. A chest radiograph was obtained after antibiotic therapy failed to resolve the symptoms. He had no history of weight loss, fevers, or chest pain. He had smoked until 2 years prior and had an 80 pack-year history of ciga...

This review documents important progress made in 2013 in the field of critical care respirology, in particular with regard to acute respiratory failure and acute respiratory distress syndrome. Twenty-five original articles published in the respirology and critical care sections of Critical Care are discussed in the following categories: pre-clinical studies, protective lung ventilation--how low...