How ARDS Affects the Lung

The recipient of a 2015 co-intern of the year award, Jason Jaramillo, MD, serves as a physician at Maimonides Medical Center. In 2017, at the national meeting of the American Society of Thoracic Surgeons held in Washington, D.C., Dr. Jason Jaramillo did a poster presentation titled “Achromobacter Xylosoxidans And Enterovirus-Rhinovirus Co-Infection Causing ARDS In A Patient With An Underlying Genetic Condition.”

A condition that often causes lung failure, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) happens when a patient has difficulty breathing as a result of leakage of fluid in the lungs. The fluid leaks from inflamed small vessels within the alveoli (tiny air sacs in the lungs). This can result from a serious injury to the body such as an accident, pneumonia, swelling of the pancreas, a serious infection, and the inhalation of toxic substances like smoke. The condition may also result from a blood transfusion.

The fluid in the lung makes it stiff. This stiffness causes hypoxemia, which is characterized by low oxygen in the blood, resulting - in this case - from difficulty inflating the lung. If the inflammation worsens and more fluid accumulates, the lung scars (the fibrotic stage of ARDS). During this stage, the lung may eventually collapse.