Risk stratification in critically ill patients: GDF-15 scores in adult respiratory distress syndrome.

Patients with adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) are highly heterogeneous but current therapies are rather uniform and largely supportive. In the previous issue of Critical Care, Clark and colleagues report that the biomarker GDF-15 provides prognostic information in ARDS that is additive to that provided by the APACHE III score. Patients with high levels of growth-differentiation factor 15 (GDF-15) had a higher mortality and more complicated hospital course. Biomarkers such as GDF-15 may help us to identify patients at higher risk who may eventually benefit from more personalized and targeted therapies.