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Table 1 Box glossary of driving pressure and lung mechanics in ARDS

From: The future of driving pressure: a primary goal for mechanical ventilation?

 ▪ Driving pressure (DP): the change in airway pressure during a tidal breath.

  ◦ DP = Pplat − PEEP

  ◦ Crs = Vt/(Pplat − PEEP) = Vt/DP

  ◦ DP = Vt/Crs

Thus, DP represents the tidal volume corrected for the patient’s respiratory system compliance.

*Transpulmonary driving pressure (DPL): DPL represents dynamic stress that takes into account the chest wall elastance whereas DP represents total (dynamic plus static) stress.

  ◦ DPL = (Pplat − PEEP) − (plateau esophageal pressure − end-expiratory esophageal pressure)

 ▪ Static compliance of the respiratory system (Crs): the compliance measured during periods without gas flow. Crs is strongly correlated with the volume of the baby lung [13, 14]

 ▪ Cyclic lung strain: the magnitude of lung deformation (change of volume) during each ventilator cycle [11]

 ▪ Lung stress: the applied force to lungs during ventilation = transpulmonary pressure [11]

 ▪ “Baby lung”: the concept that represents the reduced functional lung volume typically observed among patients with ARDS [13]