Physiological and clinical variables identify ARDS classes and therapeutic heterogeneity to glucocorticoids: a retrospective study

Abstract Objective We aimed to identify new classes in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) using physiological and clinical variables and to explore heterogeneity in the effects of glucocorticoid therapy between classes. Methods Using the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care-IV database, we identified patients with ARDS. Potential profile analysis was used to identify classes with physiological and clinical data as delineating variables. Baseline characteristics and clinical outcomes were compared between classes. The effect of glucocorticoid treatment was explored by stratifying by class and glucocorticoid treatment. Results From 2008 to 2019, 1104 patients with ARDS were enrolled in the study. The 2-class potential analysis model had the best fit (P