Personalized mechanical ventilation guided by lung ultrasound in patients with ARDS: a pilot phase of a randomized clinical trial

BACKGROUND: The "Personalized Mechanical Ventilation Guided by Lung UltraSound in Patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome" (PEGASUS) study aims to evaluate personalized mechanical ventilation (MV) in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) compared to the standard of care. However, misclassification and misaligned MV strategies were shown to be harmful. We therefore aimed to assess the interobserver agreement of lung ultrasound (LUS) between the local investigator and an expert panel in classifying ARDS subphenotypes alongside protocol adherence and safety endpoints, as a pilot phase of the ongoing PEGASUS study. METHODS: The first 80 mechanically ventilated patients with moderate-to-severe ARDS were enrolled in the ongoing PEGASUS study, a randomized clinical trial (RCT), and were included in the pilot phase. Focal or…