All statistical analyses were performed in SPSS (SPSS, version 13.0), assuming a statistical significance of P ≤ .05. The general descriptive characteristics are presented as means, standard deviations, medians, and percentages. We compared the severity assessment scores and HMGB-1, RAGE and sRAGE levels in surviving and non-surviving patients at 28 days, and between ARDS and non-ARDS patients using a statistical inferential analysis with the U Mann-Whitney nonparametric test. Using the normality tests Kolmogorov-Smirnov with the Lilliefors correction and Shapiro-Wilk, we determined if the obtained values came from a normally distributed population. We present data as plots of admission day medians.