Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42096093›Full record

ArticleIntensive care medicine2026

The predicted body weight equation overestimates lung sizes of female, critically ill patients: an analysis of randomized, controlled trials and real-world clinical data.

Dario von Wedel, Simone Redaelli, Maxime Fosset, Joris Pensier, Denys Shay, Elena Ahrens, Luca J Wachtendorf, Eva-Lotte Seibold, Aiman Suleiman, Patricia W Wu and 9 more

Abstract read
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Article in Intensive care medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

19 authors.

Dario von WedelDepartment of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Center for Anesthesia Research Excellence (CARE), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8102-0254
Simone RedaelliDepartment of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Center for Anesthesia Research Excellence (CARE), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0128-7376
Maxime FossetDepartment of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Center for Anesthesia Research Excellence (CARE), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0009-0007-4120-3356
Joris PensierDepartment of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Center for Anesthesia Research Excellence (CARE), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3525-0128
Denys ShayDepartment of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Center for Anesthesia Research Excellence (CARE), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9242-4094
Elena AhrensDepartment of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Center for Anesthesia Research Excellence (CARE), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0264-5959
Luca J WachtendorfDepartment of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Center for Anesthesia Research Excellence (CARE), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9966-2092
Eva-Lotte SeiboldDepartment of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Center for Anesthesia Research Excellence (CARE), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2140-7307
Aiman SuleimanDepartment of Anesthesiology, Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York City, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2625-4028
Patricia W WuDepartment of Radiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7453-0368
Seth J BerkowitzDepartment of Radiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1030-4297
Tayran MiláDivisao de Pneumologia, INCOR-Instituto Do Coracao, Hospital das Clinicas, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brasil.
Felix BalzerInstitute of Medical Informatics, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1575-2056
Eduardo V CostaDivisao de Pneumologia, INCOR-Instituto Do Coracao, Hospital das Clinicas, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brasil.ORCID http://orcid.org/0009-0007-9658-8556
Boris JungCenter for Anesthesia Research Excellence (CARE), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2522-1531
Elias N Baedorf KassisDepartment of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5491-6063
Marcelo B AmatoDivisao de Pneumologia, INCOR-Instituto Do Coracao, Hospital das Clinicas, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brasil.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3525-8282
Daniel TalmorDepartment of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Center for Anesthesia Research Excellence (CARE), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7239-8068
Maximilian S SchaeferDepartment of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Center for Anesthesia Research Excellence (CARE), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. msschaef@bidmc.harvard.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8186-4748

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeLow tidal volume (Vt) ventilation is the standard of care among critically ill patients. Guidelines recommend scaling Vt to the predicted body weight (PBW) to avoid ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI). Concerns exist that the PBW overestimates lung volumes of critically ill females. We investigated whether this applies to clinically relevant measures of lung volume, whether PBW-guided mechanical ventilation yields comparable risk of lung stress among male and female patients, and whether this affects mortality.

methodsMechanically ventilated, critically ill patients from ten randomized trials and two real-world retrospective clinical datasets were analyzed. Risk of high driving pressures (≥ 15 cmH

resultsAmong 30,516 patients (39.4% female), ventilation with comparable tidal volumes standardized to PBW (ml/kg PBW) was associated with 4.2% (95% CI 3.2-5.3; aOR 1.26, 95% CI 1.19-1.33; p < 0.001) higher absolute risk of high driving pressures among females, mediating 8.4% of excess 28-day mortality (p < 0.001). At the same PBW, female patients had lower anatomical and aerated lung volumes (- 343 ml, 95% CI - 449 to - 237, p < 0.001; and - 188, 95% CI - 282 to - 94, p < 0.001, respectively) than males.

conclusionsThe widely used PBW equation overestimates lung volumes in female critically ill patients, resulting in excess risk of injurious driving pressures among females, mediating higher mortality. Personalized mechanical ventilation by using driving pressure-guided strategies might mitigate these disparities.

Indexed as

Body WeightCritical IllnessLungRespiration, ArtificialAgedFemaleHumansLung Volume MeasurementsMaleMiddle AgedRandomized Controlled Trials as TopicRetrospective StudiesSex FactorsTidal VolumeVentilator-Induced Lung InjuryAcute respiratory distress syndromeAlgorithmic biasHealthcare disparitiesMechanical ventilationPersonalized medicine

Identifiers

PMID42096093

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.