Novel pharmacologic approaches for the treatment of ARDS

Abstract

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a heterogeneous disease, which is defined by the acute onset of hypoxemic respiratory failure with bilateral infiltrates on chest radiography due primarily to non-cardiogenic pulmonary edema [1]. Only two supportive strategies have shown to improve survival in patients with acute lung injury (ALI)/ARDS, namely lung protective ventilation that reduces the stretch of the lungs and a conservative fluid strategy [2, 3]. The mortality of ARDS, however, remains high and no pharmacological therapies have effectively improved the outcome of these patients so far. Studies of the pharmacologic management of ARDS, such as trials of anti-inflammatory agents, anticoagulants, surfactant, vasodilators, and β2 agonists, have shown conflicting results [4]. Potential reasons for such conflicting results may be: In the last decade, there has been extensive research into potential therapeutic targets and methods of drug administration that could help in the development of specific pharmacological drugs to prevent or mitigate the development of ARDS.