What causes acute respiratory distress syndrome?

Imagine waking up from a coma, only to find yourself with an excruciatingly painful breathing sensation. That’s what happens when you experience acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Now, I know what you’re thinking – “Is that like asthma or pneumonia?” Nope! ARDS is more severe than both combined! In this article, we’ll explore the causes of ARDS in detail and reveal some curious facts about this life-threatening condition.

A Quick Overview on Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Before diving headfirst into this topic’s nitty-gritty aspects, it’s essential to understand what ARDS generally means. To put simply, ARDS occurs due to fluid buildup in the lungs’ tiny air sacs or alveoli after damage by another injury or underlying health issue. Essentially your body gets double-crossed where it cannot breathe correctly; its patient waterboards itself—crazy right!

Pexels: What’s Happening Here?

Here are hard-hitting stats regarding Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome:

  • Over 3 million cases per year occur worldwide.
  • About 40% die while receiving treatment.
  • Prevalent among people over age 65.
  • Majority seen as cases related to other illnesses/ injuries.

So why does something so cruel keep happening? Let’s move forward and work backward simultaneously to determine the answer.

Let’s Start with One Major Reason for ARDS

One primary reason behind ARDS can be traced back to sepsis – a life-threatening response your body has when bacteria enter your bloodstream (bacteremia) if left untreated. Sepsis inflicts considerable physical stress on one’s body and tricks their immune system into continuously producing cytokines aka white blood cells trying (and failing) to counter bacterial infections.

cytokines can even potentially start attacking your body’s cells, leading to organ damage.

Let’s Get Real Folks About Sepsis

A few points on this condition could help you understand how sepsis can cause Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome:

  • Severe sepsis is a type of severe infection that happens when bacteria that usually stay outside the human body enter and begin to grow inside it.
  • The immune response to bacteria in severe sepsis causes widespread inflammation throughout the body. That leads us back to cytokines (of course).
  • Cytokines overwhelming your immune system lead an increased build-up of fluid in lung alveoli.

Think Pneumonia is Not Connected? ThinK Again!

Pneumonia cases happen everywhere worldwide, being one dominant cause of ARDS too! You see where I’m going with this? Yep – we’ve got another offender working against our respiratory tract.

Two common types of pneumonia may give birth or contribute to Ards: Community-Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) & Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia (HAP). Got wacky names right?!

Special Attention for Hap!

When hospitals fail during admittance care, patients are more likely prone to develop Acute Respiratory distress syndrome over CAP victims; just imagine if you were trying really hard not be sick or infected by anything and end up stuck somewhere from every possible terrible thing happening around you—you’re breathing someone else’s polluted custard air—every day.

Additional Salty Info On These Two Accomplices…

Here are some extra bizarre statistics about CAP & HAP respectively:

  • In the U.S., It affects approximately 5 million people annually.
  • Those admitted with HAP have a higher risk factor for ARDS than those who were diagnosed with other bacterial pneumonias.
  • Recent studies also suggest spending time within areas with high air pollution levels can make you more prone to CAP.

Let’s Not Ignore Tragic Trauma!

Now that our pneumonia and sepsis predictions have been (sadly) proven right – in comes the primary elephant in a room no one wants around— Injury. This condition most often arises as an outcome of unexpected circumstances from traumatic incidents such as car accidents, falls, sports injuries but may even happen through severe cases like organ transplants or radiation treatments.

Let’s get on some shockingly decent statistics about ARDS after trauma:

  • Common Cases found mostly among men age 18-65.
  • Severe consequences for any person who has had it before are at higher risk.
  • If someone loses consciousness post-injury, their chances of developing ARDS are magnified almost twentyfold.

If only we knew not to take so many risks… life sure would be boring though! Warn yourself next time you skateboard down a mountain road while holding fireworks.

Car Accidents & ARDS

The aftermaths of notorious traffic crashes aren’t always visible by external bruises; internal wounds cause extreme stress on your respiratory organs too. Rapid swelling in your body causing inflammation could lead you to develop septic shock then ultimately land right back into the victim squad for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome!

UGHH!!!!! Yet Another Hidden Trick Up Injuries Sleeve

Post-victims survival is heavily dependent on heaps following strict guidelines including permanently oxygen therapy use the moment they’ve woken up off anesthesia.

Other Causes We Can’t Forget About…

Quite frankly, nothing stops medicine advancements from continuing breakthrough research since there still seems an infinite amount left undiscovered about precarious health conditions furthering…. The list goes pretty long iterating other causes for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, but we will touch upon those which need attention due to their frequency without ignoring many rare occurrences resulting from burns (seizures), medications, blood transfusions influenced shock, and many anesthetics.

Hold on tight here comes more yuck stuff about overall Causes behind ARDS

  • Seizures can be generalized to all over the body or partial (impacting one side of the brain)
  • For burns resulting in ARDS, find yourself under serious lung irritation as inflammation affects not only local wounds.
  • The biggest takeaway for blood infection/medications: your immune system should work with them; however, it may activate immune cells release cytokines causing similar issues seen from previous topics we’ve covered.

So Where Can We Draw the Line?

Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome is a condition that anyone can have— getting diagnosed could involve testing services like oxygen saturation level check-up for arterial blood levels. Symptoms might include abrupt breathing problems at rest or suddenly after physical activity. Noticeable shortness of breath 1 hour credit cardio class too? Visit a doctor!

So What Do You Think?

Now you understand why people are wary when they hear “Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.” Nevertheless it’s important to keep being careful because even though we went through only some causes today in this article who knows what else could scare us tomorrow— Just remember always take care of one another (And stop racing shopping carts while holding onto friends).

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