The fun is not just in finding the answers, but also in seeking clear ways to discover the answers to our most timeless questions. Health System has been chosen by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to join a network of centers studying the management and treatment of Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome. The respiratory syndrome is an acute, severe injury to the lungs, caused by a variety of diseases, such as pneumonia, shock and sepsis, or traumatic injury. According to the institute, it affects as many as 150,000 people in the U.S. each year. Patients experience severe shortness of breath and require life support on a ventilator because of respiratory failure.
Physicians have to wait for the body to heal the injured lungs while they keep the patient alive.
Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. He and Dr. Alfred F. Connors Jr., professor of health evaluation sciences and internal medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, are the principal investigators for the center. Connors said they have just started to enter patients in this study. Our selection was based on their assessment of the quality of critical care at U.Va., the number of patients that we manage with acute lung injury and the quality of our scientific team. There are 20 ARDSnet centers nationwide .