Researchers at National Jewish Health and the University of Colorado Denver have discovered a gene that is associated with improved survival among patients with acute lung injury. Acute lung injury (ALI) is often caused by a respiratory infection and results in low oxygen levels in the blood, and fluid in the lungs.

Individuals with a number of clinical conditions, including pneumonia, and those treated by mechanical ventilation for a prolonged period of time are at risk of acute lung injury, a life-threatening disorder for which there is no treatment.

It’s not a smoking gun, but it’s smoking-related, and it’s there in bright medical images: evidence of microscopic structural damage deep in the lungs, caused by secondhand cigarette smoke.

Patients with acute lung injury (ALI) are nearly one-third less likely to die if they are treated at ICUs that require board-certified critical care physicians to oversee patient care, as compared to patients treated at ICUs that allow any attending physician to oversee admission and case management.

The acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a clinical complication of severe acute lung injury (ALI) in humans, is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients.

Use of nitric oxide in patients with acute lung injury does not improve survival and may cause harm, warn researchers in a study published on bmj.com today.