Pulmonary fibrosis is a critical threat across ILDs

Interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) are a heterogeneous group of lung diseases that vary in etiology^1–3

Learn more about the critical threat of pulmonary fibrosis in ILDs

See what Vincent Cottin, Professor of Respiratory Medicine, has to say about the importance of pulmonary fibrosis in IPF and in a range of non-IPF ILDs

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Fibrosis is an excessive deposition of extracellular matrix within the lungs. Pulmonary fibrosis is actually characterised histologically, and pulmonary fibrosis occurs in a number of conditions, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which is most typical of these conditions characterised by progressive onset, but what we have learned in recent years is the importance also of pulmonary fibrosis in other conditions.

What we call pulmonary fibrosis may also occur in other conditions, for example, in connective tissue disease, scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis with interstitial lung disease, and other connective tissue disease. In chronic HP, chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis, which is related to exposure to an antigen, there are acute forms that are reversible, but there are also chronic forms that often include some fibrosis.

Abbreviations

cHP, chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis; CTD-ILD, connective tissue disease-associated interstitial lung disease; ILD, interstitial lung disease; IPF, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis; RA-ILD, rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease; SSc-ILD, systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease.

Cottin V, Hirani N, Hotchkin D, et al. Presentation, diagnosis and clinical course of the spectrum of progressive-fibrosing interstitial lung diseases. Eur Respir Rev. 2018;27(150):180076.
Demedts M, Wells AU, Antó JM, et al. Interstitial lung diseases: an epidemiological overview. Eur Respir J. 2001;18(suppl 32):2s-16s.
Ryu JH, Daniels CE, Hartman TE, Yi ES. Diagnosis of interstitial lung diseases. Mayo Clin Proc. 2007;82(8):976–986.