The Burden of Acute Respiratory Failure in Chinese ICUs: a National Cohort Study

1. The goal of this study will focus on the following items: * The frequency and disease burden of acute respiratory failure in China; * The incidence of ARDS based on the new global definition within this patient cohort. * The mortality of ARDS within this cohort, and how does this vary based on ARDS categories and severity. * The long-term outcomes (1-year mortality and survivor quality of life) of ARDS within this cohort. * The nature course of ARDS (different stages and severity of ARDS). * The respiratory support management strategies, such as recruitment maneuvers, prone positioning, ECCO2R, and ECMO. * The use of drugs during ICU stays, including glucocorticoid, anticoagulant, nitric oxide, sivelestat, Xuebijing, and ulinastatin. * The economical burden of acute respiratory failure within this patient cohort. * The impact of occupation, incomes and education levels on the incidence and mortality of ARDS. 2. Methods 2.1 Study Design This is a national prospective observational study, aimed at collecting an adequate dataset on a large cohort of patients admitted to a large number of ICUs in China. Each ICU will be requested to recruit for 8 consecutive 'winter' weeks between January 2024 and April 2024. 2.2 Inclusion and exclusion criteria * Inclusion criteria: All patients admitted to the participating ICU receiving invasive, non-invasive ventilation or high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) will be screened and included in the database. * Exclusion criteria:Age\<18 3. Sample size calculation Our aim is to obtain a sample of at least 1500 ARDS patients within the cohort.