Acute lung injury, acute respiratory distress syndrome and inhalation injury: An overview

Acute Lung Injury (ALI) and the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) are severe respiratory diseases that have a very poor prognosis and have nu merous causes. Despite a great deal of research and investigation since the initial description of ARDS 30 years ago many questions about the pathogen esis, treatment and outcome of the disease remain unanswered. Although ther e is evidence to suggest that outcome of ALI and ARDS is improving, the rea sons why are unknown and there is not yet a well developed treatment for th ese diseases. Inhalation injury resulting from exposure to pyrolysis and combustion atmos pheres is among the causes of ALI/ARDS. Little is known of the mechanisms o f fire related inhalation injury that results in the development of ALI/ARD S. There is a paucity of information about fire atmosphere exposure respons e relationships for smoke-induced inhalation injury. Although there is cons iderable information about the pulmonary toxicity of many of the more commo n constituents of fire atmospheres, little is known about the pulmonary tox icity of mixtures of these constituents. Fire related pulmonary health risks are of particular concern to the Navy d ue to the limited opportunity to escape the inhalation hazards posed by shi pboard fires.