How does lipoid pneumonia lead to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)?

Question

The vaping illnesses that have been happening on the news in the United States are being caused by the federal prohibition on marijuana. Smugglers will legally go to recreational marijuana dispensaries in legal states and purchase cartridges that contain about a gram of "wax". Proper cartridges will use polyethylene glycol, polypropylene glycol, or vegetable glycerin to suspend the THC for vaporizing, but the smugglers have been known to open up the tank and remove some of the wax and refill the remaining volume with Vitamin E Oil. These tampered cartridges are then sold on the black market to recreational and medical consumers in illegal states.

The CDC Report: "Outbreak of Lung Injury Associated with the Use of E-Cigarette, or Vaping, Products"

Ricky · Answer

There are several ways to get ARDS (sepsis, pneumonia, trauma, pancreatitis, etc). Pathophysiologically, they all converge at alveolar insult. So however it happens, there's alveolar insult, cytokine release that recruits neutrophils, and the activated neutrophils release toxic mediators that destroy the alveolar membranes. So for your question specifically, the mineral oil in the vape cartridges (theoretically) is instigating an inflammatory reaction that destroys alveolar membranes.

Answered by Ricky on February 11, 2021

How does lipoid pneumonia lead to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)?

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