title: Right heart failure in acute respiratory distress syndrome: An unappreciated albeit a potential target for intervention in the management of the disease.
abstract: Mortality from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) has gone down recently. In spite of this trend, the absolute numbers continue to be high even with improvements in ventilator strategies and a better understanding of fluid management with this disease. A possible reason for this could be an under-recognized involvement of the pulmonary vasculature and the right side of the heart in ARDS. The right heart is not designed to function under situations leading to acute elevations in afterload as seen in ARDS, and hence it decompensates. This brief review focuses on the magnitude of the problem, its detection in the intensive care unit, and recognizes the beneficial effect of prone-positioning on the pulmonary vasculature and right heart.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, University of Florida Shands Hospital, Gainesville, Florida 32610, USA.
authors.forename: Abhishek
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Biswas
keywords: Acute cor pulmonale; acute respiratory distress syndrome; protective ventilation; pulmonary vascular dysfunction