Plasma levels of ten biomarkers with validated associations with ARDS were measured with a customized Luminex assay (R&D Systems, Minneapolis) (13 (link)) and classified into the following categories: a. innate immune responses (IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, TNFR1, suppression of tumorigenicity-2 [ST-2], fractalkine) (9 (link), 14 (link)–16 (link)), b. epithelial injury (receptor of advanced glycation end-products [RAGE]) (17 (link)), c. endothelial injury (Angiopoietin-2) (18 (link)) and, d. host-response to bacterial infections (procalcitonin and pentraxin-3) (19 (link), 20 (link)).