About the Authors

Jesús Villar

Contributed equally to this work with: Jesús Villar, Nuria E. Cabrera

jesus.villar54@gmail.com

Affiliations CIBER de Enfermedades Respiratorias, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain, Research Unit, Hospital Universitario Dr. Negrin, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, Keenan Research Center at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Canada

Nuria E. Cabrera

Contributed equally to this work with: Jesús Villar, Nuria E. Cabrera

Affiliations CIBER de Enfermedades Respiratorias, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain, Research Unit, Hospital Universitario Dr. Negrin, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

Francisco Valladares

Affiliations CIBER de Enfermedades Respiratorias, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain, Department of Anatomy, Pathology and Histology, University of La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

Milena Casula

Affiliations CIBER de Enfermedades Respiratorias, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain, Research Unit, Hospital Universitario Dr. Negrin, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

Carlos Flores

Affiliations CIBER de Enfermedades Respiratorias, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain, Research Unit, Hospital Universitario NS de Candelaria, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain

Lluís Blanch

Affiliations CIBER de Enfermedades Respiratorias, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain, Critical Care Center, Corporació Sanitaria Parc Taulí, Sabadell, Barcelona, Spain

María Elisa Quilez

Affiliations CIBER de Enfermedades Respiratorias, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain, Critical Care Center, Corporació Sanitaria Parc Taulí, Sabadell, Barcelona, Spain

Norberto Santana-Rodríguez

Affiliations Research Unit, Hospital Universitario Dr. Negrin, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, Department of Thoracic Surgery, Hospital Universitario Dr. Negrín, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

Robert M. Kacmarek

Affiliations Department of Respiratory Care, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Department of Anesthesia, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Arthur S. Slutsky

Affiliations Keenan Research Center at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Canada, Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Adjunct Professor, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: JV NEC LB RMK ASS. Performed the experiments: JV NEC MC FV CF MEQ. Analyzed the data: JV NEC CF. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JV NEC FV MC CF LB MEQ NSR RMK ASS. Wrote the paper: JV NEC FV MC CF LB MEQ NSR RMK ASS. Obtained funding for the study: JV.