BALance: ARDS Deconvolution by Bronchoalveolar Lavage Multiomics and Radiomics

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a major contributor to ICU mortality and is characterised by hypoxaemia and pulmonary oedema. Pathomechanisms include barrier breakdown, immunopathology, haemostatic derailment and dysbiosis; however, the actual sequence of events and how they cumulatively lead to lung failure remains unclear. Although ARDS is frequently triggered by pneumonia, it can also occur as a result of trauma, aspiration or non-pulmonary causes. Importantly, ARDS is highly heterogeneous; growing evidence points to aetiology-specific pathomechanisms - a circumstance that explains why attempts to develop specific drugs or timely diagnostic markers have so far failed. A comprehensive analysis of key microenvironmental and haemostasis-related parameters of the lung, combined with multidimensional quantitative image features derived from chest CT scans (radiomics), will e