The American review of respiratory disease
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Am. Rev. Respir. Dis. · Mar 1977
Case ReportsCharacteristics of pulmonary surfactant in adult respiratory distress syndrome associated with trauma and shock.
Broncho-alveolar lavage fluid was obtained from a 24-year-old man who developed the adult respiratory distress syndrome one day after massive trauma and hemorrhagic shock. The lungs were available 3 days later when organ transplantation was performed. ⋯ This suggests that surfactant films in the adult respiratory distress syndrome are less responsive to stress, and that as a result, a loss of film elasticity may contribute to the abnormal pressure-volume relationships observed with the intact lung. Changes in the lipid-to-protein ratios of the purified lipid-protein aggregates were also found, as indicated by the recovery of 3 lipid-protein aggregates with different isopycnic densities from the lung with adult respiratory distress syndrome; only one major aggregate could be recovered from the lavages of normal lungs.