Outstanding scientists in the world of organ dysfunction

摘要

Thomas Petty, MD has made sentinel contributions in clinical research. He is best known as the clinical investigator who described the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) almost 40 years ago. His seminal observations identified this syndrome of acute respiratory failure as a major important clinical problem. A recent population-based study (1) established that 200 000 patients in the USA alone develop acute lung injury and the ARDS (ALI/ARDS) annually. In addition to describing the clinical syndrome, Dr. Petty has been active in clinical investigations to test several clinical treatments for ALI/ARDS. He has also trained several leading investigators who focused their work on clinical investigations of the ARDS.