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Bench to Bedside:  Targeting Coagulation and Fibrinolysis in Acute Lung Injury
Sponsored by the APS Respiration Section

An important paradigm shift is occurring in our understanding of the role of coagulation and fibrinolysis in inflammatory diseases.  The inflammatory and coagulation cascades interact and overlap at multiple levels and serve to amplify and regulate each other.  This observation has led to the hypothesis that alerations in coagulation and fibrinolysis may be key pathophsyiologic events in the acutely injured lung.  As a result, the coagulation and fibrinolytic cascades may have great potential as targets for new therapeutics in acute lung injury.  The goal of this session is to explore the links between alterations in coagulation and fibrinolysis and the pathogenesis of acute lung injury from the bench to the bedside. Important new experimental evidence for the fundamental role of altered coagulation and fibrinolysis in the pathogenesis of acute lung injury will be presented. Clinical studies that extend these observations to human subjects will be presented with an emphasis on potential novel therapeutic targets.