An InnovaTive Approach to Ventilator-Induced Diaphragmatic Dysfunction

Inclusion Criteria: * The patient must suffer from respiratory insufficiency requiring mechanical ventilation Exclusion Criteria: * The patient has been hospitalized and mechanically ventilated (invasive or non- invasive) in the period up to 1 year before start of the study. * The patient is known or suspected to have an anatomical malformation of the diaphragm. * The patient suffers from a disease that may impair diaphragmatic function: * Central neural disease at the level of the brain (Multiple sclerosis, stroke, Arnold-Chiari malformation) and spinal cord (quadriplegia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, poliomyelitis, spinal muscular atrophy, syringomyelia). * Neural disease of the phrenic nerve (Guillain-Barré syndrome, tumor compression, neuralgic neuropathy, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease). * Disorders of the neuromuscular junction (Myasthenia gravis, Lambert- Eaton syndrome, botulism, organophosphate poisoning). * Muscular diseases (muscular dystrophies, myositis (infectious, inflammatory, metabolic). * The patient is known or suspected to have a psychiatric illness inhibiting his/her cooperation with the study protocol or possibly obscuring the obtained results. * The patient has been mechanically ventilated for over 24 hours before the first ultrasonographic measurement can be performed.