BACKGROUND Preventing ventilator-associated lung injury (VALI) has become pivotal in mechanical ventilation of patients with acute lung injury (ALI) or its more severe form, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). In the present study we investigated whether plasma levels of lung-specific biological markers can be used to evaluate lung injury in patients with ALI/ARDS and patients without l...

Correspondence: J.L. Clausen, UCSD Medical Center, San Diego, CA, USA 92037. *Respiratory Medicine, McGill University, Montreal Childrens Hospital, Canada. **Physiology Dept, Leiden University, The Netherlands. Inspired and expired lung volumes measured by spirometry have been used clinically for over one hundred years and have proved useful in the detection, characterization, and quantificatio...

OBJECTIVE To establish reference intervals for the fetal right, left and total lung volumes and heart volume between 12 and 32 weeks of gestation. METHODS Fetal lung and heart volumes were measured using three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound in 650 normal singleton pregnancies at 12-32 weeks. The VOCAL (Virtual Organ Computer-aided AnaLysis) technique was used to obtain a sequence of six sections...

The aim of this study was to assess whether in utero tobacco smoke exposure alone affects early-life lung growth and development. Pregnant BALB/c mice were exposed to cigarette smoke from six cigarettes per day, or air, from day 8 to 20 of gestation. At 2 weeks of age, pups were weighed and had their lung volumes and lung mechanics measured. Pups born from mothers exposed to cigarette smoke (CS...

The lung-expanding action of the diaphragm is primarily related to the descent of the dome produced by the shortening of the muscle fibers. However, when the phrenic nerves in dogs are selectively stimulated at functional residual capacity, the muscle insertions into the lower ribs also move caudally. This rib motion should enhance the descent of the dome and increase the fall in pleural pressu...