Figure 2.

Minimum surface tension. The surface tension of large surfactant aggregates after 5 min film oscillation at minimum bubble radius (γ min) is given. All data are given as mean ± standard error. *** = p < 0.001: T0 compared to healthy controls (Mann-Whitney-U test); § = p < 0.05; §§ = p < 0.01: T2 compared to T0 (Wilcoxon test); # = p < 0.05: non-survivors compared to survivors (Mann-Whitney-U test). Due to the limited amount of large surfactant aggregates, complete data sets of surface tension values (T0, T1 and T2) were only measured in 6 patients (3 survivors, 3 non-survivors).