Physiology Is Vital to Precision Medicine in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome and Sepsis.

The American Thoracic Society recently released a thoughtful and forward-thinking statement outlining a research agenda for precision medicine in sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The statement draws attention to the problem of highly variable treatment responsiveness in these heterogeneous syndromes and proposes a range of promising solutions to address this problem, with a focus on enhanced molecular phenotyping and novel trial designs ( 2 External 0 0 0 ref showRefEvent 1 false https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/10.1164/rccm.202202-0230ED?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed true false%>). This approach is predicated on an overarching hypothesis that the molecular contents of biospecimens contain the key to unlocking patient heterogeneity for precision-guided therapy for sepsis and ARDS. Although this hypothesis is very attractive and will undoubtedly yield exciting discoveries and therapies in the future, we suggest that the focus on molecular measurements is too narrow and overlooks critical readouts of systems biology, yielding an incomplete data set for precision medicine. We contend that physiology remains an important and feasible means to understand and predict heterogeneity of treatment effect. It has a proven record of success and can be used in real time to monitor and tailor treatment.
Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH) - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news