Gravitational distribution of regional opening and closing pressures, hysteresis and atelectrauma in ARDS evaluated by electrical impedance tomography.

Gravity impacts the regional distribution of opening and closing pressure, hysteresis and atelectrauma, with higher values in the dorsal lung. Regional differences between inspiratory and expiratory lung physiology are detectable at the bedside using EIT and could allow in-depth characterization of ARDS phenotypes and guide personalized ventilation settings.