VWF and acute respiratory distress syndrome: vWF provides complementary information because it is stored in endothelial Weibel-Palade bodies and released during inflammatory and mechanical stress; elevated vWF antigen has repeatedly been associated with poorer outcomes in ARDS and in both septic and non-septic ARDS populations, consistent with diffuse endothelial activation and capillary leak physiology [112,113,223].