Biological markers of lung injury before and after the institution of positive pressure ventilation in patients with acute lung injury

Table 1 Clinical characteristics of 25 patients with acute lung injury or acute respiratory distress syndrome

Clinical characteristic	No. of patients (percentage of total)^a
Age	62 ± 21 years^b
Males	13 (52)
APACHE II score	27 ± 9^b
Primary etiology of ALI/ARDS
Pneumonia	16 (64)
Sepsis	4 (16)
Aspiration	4 (16)
Other	1 (4)
Underlying medical illness
Chronic liver disease	6 (24)
Chronic renal insufficiency	6 (24)
Metastatic cancer	0 (0)
Hematologic malignancy	3 (12)
AIDS	1 (4)
Diabetes mellitus	1 (4)

^aExcept where marked with superscript b; ^bdata shown as means ± standard deviation. ALI, acute lung injury; APACHE II, acute physiology and chronic health evaluation; ARDS, acute respiratory distress syndrome.

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