Acute respiratory distress syndrome: A study of autopsy findings

Context: In this autopsy study, the various morphological patterns of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) have been analyzed and compared along with their etiopathogenesis. Aims: We aimed to study the prevalence and clinicopathological correlation of ARDS based on age, gender, hospital stay, symptoms, clinical diagnosis, gross, and microscopy findings. Subjects and Methods: Total 130 cases of ARDS were studied over a period of 5 years. Age, gender, hospital stay duration, symptoms, clinical diagnosis, gross and microscopic lung finding, clinicopathological correlation, and cause of death were documented and analyzed. Special stains were done whenever required. Statistical Analysis: This is an observational study, and simple statistics such as mean, median, and standard deviation have been used for continuous variables. Results: The prevalence of ARDS among the adult autopsy was 6.05%. Majority of the cases were in the age group of 18–30 years (36.9%), with a male: female ratio of 1.7:1. Chief complaints were fever (71%), breathlessness (54.6%), and chills (43.8%). The main clinical diagnoses were ARDS (41.6%), sepsis (28.3%), acute febrile illness (17%), and lower respiratory tract infection (12.5%). Most of the patients had a hospital stay of