Background Inflammatory cytokines (ICs) are important modulators of injury and repair. ICs
have been found to be elevated in the BAL of patients with both early and late ARDS. We
tested the hypothesis that recurrent injury to the alveolocapillary barrier and amplification of
intra-alveolar fibroproliferation observed in nonresolving ARDS is related to a persistent
inflammatory response. For this purpose, we obtained serial measurements of BAL IC and
correlated these levels with lung injury score (LIS), BAL indexes of endothelial permeability …