Table 1.

Salient markers of acute respiratory tract injury of phosgene and chlorine in rats

	Phosgene	Chlorine
Subjective symptoms	Absent	Eye and airway irritation
Sensory irritation-URT	Absent	Marked
Bronchial airway injury	Minimal, if any	Marked
Surfactant deterioration	Marked	Dose-dependent
Sensory irritation-LRT	Marked	Dose-dependent
Alveolar macrophage injury	Marked	Dose-dependent
Pulmonary vascular dysfunction	Marked	Dose-dependent
Cardiopulmonary dysfunction	Marked	Marked
Early lung edema	Extreme doses	Dose-dependent
Onset of lung edema	Maximum 15–20 h	Instant
Primary countermeasure	Lung edema	Lung edema & obliterating airway injury
Secondary countermeasure	Rapid recovery	Lingering airway injury
Clinical guidance on inhaled dose	Phosgene dosimeters	Environmental analyses (if available)
Prognostic approaches	Hemoglobin, eNO, eCO2	Irritation severity, fibrin

URT upper respiratory tract, LRT lower respiratory tract, eNO exhaled nitric oxide, eCO ₂ exhaled carbon dioxide