Surfactant replacement was well tolerated in patients with lung contusions and severe hypoxemia and resulted in improved oxygenation and compliance.

The levels of neutral lipids and especially cholesterol and cholesterol esters in BAL can be used to distinguish patients with FES from ALI/ARDS due to other predisposing factors. Phospholipase A(2) may be involved in the development, and PAF-acetylhydrolase in the downregulation of inflammation in FES.

No abstract

Amiodarone is a highly effective antiarrhythmic drug, albeit notorious for its serious pulmonary toxicity. The incidence of amiodarone-induced pulmonary toxicity (APT) appears to be 1% per year (1). We report a case of very acute APT in a man suffering from postoperative atrial fibrillation.

Introduction Use of the prone position in patients with acute lung injury improves their oxygenation. Most of these patients die from multisystem organ failure and not from hypoxia, however. Moreover, there is some evidence that the organ failure is caused by increased cell apoptosis. In the present study we therefore examined whether the position of the patients affects histological changes and apoptosis in the lung and 'end organs', including the brain, heart, diaphragm, liver, kidneys and small intestine.