An alternative method of acute lung injury classification for use in observational studies

CV Shah, PN Lanken, AR Localio, R Gallop, S Bellamy… - Chest, 2010 - Elsevier
Background In observational studies using acute lung injury (ALI) as an outcome, a
spectrum of lung injury and difficult-to-interpret chest radiographs (CXRs) may hamper
efforts to uncover risk factor associations. We assessed the impact of excluding patients with
difficult-to-classify or equivocal ALI diagnosis on clinical and genetic risk factor associations
for ALI after trauma. Methods This study was of a prospective cohort of 280 critically ill
trauma patients. The primary outcome was the development of ALI. Patients were classified …