During acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) occurs, the pulmonary vasoconstriction increased pulmonary vascular resistance, led to pulmonary arterial hypertension and excessive right ventricular afterload, followed by acute corpulmonale(ACP), aggravated right ventricular function damage, bring about pulmonary edema and hypoxemia, those are the important causes lead to patient death. Healthy people exposed to chronic hypoxia at high altitude for a long period prone to physiological pulmonary hypertension and change of blood viscosity, thus aggravating the severity of ARDS at high altitude. Therefore, the pathophysiological changes of ARDS are different in plateau to that in plain areas, and the diagnostic criteria, clinical manifestations and severity of the disease are also different. In present paper, the factors affecting the aggravation of right heart damage were discussed from a pathophysiological point, and a proposal was made that monitoring and protection of right ventricular function should be paid more attention in plateau and hypoxia environment for ARDS patient, optimizing respiratory support therapy, pulmonary vasodilation therapy and anticoagulant therapy for reducing the iatrogenic injury in treatment and improving the survival rate of ARDS patients.

respiratory distress syndrome, adult  /  hypoxia  /  corpulmonale  /  ventricular function, right