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Fig. 1 | Critical Care

Fig. 1

From: Long-term cognitive impairment after acute respiratory distress syndrome: a review of clinical impact and pathophysiological mechanisms

Fig. 1

Confluence of clinical risk factors and pathophysiological events culminating in cognitive impairment following ARDS and brain injury. Combinations of irreversible clinical risk factors, pathophysiological events, and modifiable clinical risk factors, each occurring to varying extents, produce an aggregate sum of risk for long-term cognitive impairment. Cognitive outcomes reflect a continuum up to a threshold beyond which a patient is likely to experience an adverse outcome, defined as long-term cognitive impairment. The aggregate sum of these factors can bring the patient’s risk for long-term impairment closer toward this threshold (the upward trajectory indicated by the red arrow); however, minimization of modifiable clinical factors can bring the aggregate sum further away from the threshold, promoting a less adverse cognitive outcome (the downward trajectory indicated by the green arrow)

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