TY - JOUR T1 - COVID-19 conundrum: Clinical phenotyping based on pathophysiology as a promising approach to guide therapy in a novel illness JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J DO - 10.1183/13993003.02135-2020 SP - 2002135 AU - Robin Cherian AU - Bharatendu Chandra AU - Moon Ley Tung AU - Alain Vuylsteke Y1 - 2020/01/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/early/2020/07/09/13993003.02135-2020.abstract N2 - We read with interest the recent editorial by Bos et al. on the perils of premature phenotyping in COVID-19 [1]. The authors concluded that a normal compliance variant of ARDS does not exist, based on two small cohort studies reporting low respiratory system compliance in COVID-19 patients [2, 3]. However, this assumption may be erroneous, as first, the admission and intubation thresholds are highly variable across units, resulting in marked heterogeneity. Secondly, several studies demonstrate that a high proportion of mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients exhibit near-normal lung compliance [4–6].The current evidence of COVID-19 pathophysiology supports the idea of specific phenotypes, and clinical phenotyping may be valuable to guide therapy. ER -