Advances in medical imaging to evaluate acute respiratory distress syndrome

Acute respiratory distress syndrome is a refractory respiratory syndrome with a high prevalence in the Intensive Care Unit. Though much improvement has been achieved over the last 50 decades, the disease continues to be under-recognized and under-treated, and its mortality remains high. Since the first report, the radiologic examination has been an essential part in evaluating this disease. Chest X-ray radiography and computed tomography are conventional imaging techniques in routine clinical practice. Other image modalities, including lung ultrasound, electrical impedance tomography, positron emission tomography, have demonstrated their respective advantages over recent years but have not yet been broadly applied in clinical practice. Among these modalities, computed tomography and its quantitative analysis have shown an irreplaceable power in diagnosis, intervention evaluation and prognostic prediction. In this review, we briefly introduced the basics of acute respiratory distress syndrome and summarized imaging advances. In addition, we focused on the computed tomography modality and highlighted the value of its quantitative assessment.