Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a rare connective tissue disease with a heterogeneous clinical course. Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a common manifestation of SSc and a leading cause of death.
All ...patients newly diagnosed with SSc should receive a comprehensive clinical evaluation, including assessment of respiratory symptoms, a high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) scan of the chest, and pulmonary function tests. ILD can develop in any patient with SSc, including those with pulmonary hypertension, but the risk is increased in those with diffuse (rather than limited) cutaneous SSc, those with anti-Scl-70/anti-topoisomerase I antibody, and in the absence of anti-centromere antibody. While it can occur at any time, the risk of developing ILD is greatest early in the course of SSc, so patients should be monitored closely in the first few years after diagnosis. An increased extent of lung fibrosis on HRCT and a low forced vital capacity (FVC) are predictors of early mortality. While not all patients will require treatment, current approaches to the treatment of progressive SSc-ILD focus on immunosuppressant therapies, including cyclophosphamide and mycophenolate mofetil. In patients with severe and/or rapidly progressive disease, both haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and lung transplantation have been successfully used. A number of medications, including the two drugs approved for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), are under active investigation as potential new therapies for SSc-ILD.
Physicians managing patients with SSc should maintain a high level of suspicion and regularly monitor for ILD, particularly in the first few years after diagnosis.
Desquamative interstitial pneumonia (DIP) was originally described by L
iebow
et al.
1 in 1965, and so named because of the observation of cells filling the alveolar spaces and the belief that this ...feature was due to desquamation of alveolar epithelial cells. It has since been recognised that the dominant histologic feature of DIP represents accumulation of intra-alveolar macrophages, and sometimes of giant cells 2. Although the more accurate terminology of “alveolar macrophage pneumonia” has been proposed, the term DIP has persisted 3.
In 2020, DIP is no longer idiopathic but remains orphan within the group of interstitial pneumonia. Disease course is not always benign. International collaboration is warranted to enable prospective studies.
https://bit.ly/2YmR6B0
Eosinophilic Lung Diseases Cottin, Vincent
Clinics in chest medicine,
09/2016, Volume:
37, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Eosinophilic lung diseases especially comprise eosinophilic pneumonia or as the more transient Löffler syndrome, which is most often due to parasitic infections. The diagnosis of eosinophilic ...pneumonia is based on characteristic clinical-imaging features and the demonstration of alveolar eosinophilia, defined as at least 25% eosinophils at BAL. Peripheral blood eosinophilia is common but may be absent at presentation in idiopathic acute eosinophilic pneumonia, which may be misdiagnosed as severe infectious pneumonia. All possible causes of eosinophilia, including drug, toxin, fungus related etiologies, must be thoroughly investigated. Extrathoracic manifestations should raise the suspicion of eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis.
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive disease, with a median survival time of 2-5 years. The search for effective treatment has involved numerous clinical trials of investigational ...agents without significant success. However, in 2011, pirfenidone was the first drug to be approved for the treatment of IPF in Europe. Four key clinical trials supported the efficacy and tolerability of pirfenidone. In the two recently published Phase III CAPACITY trials evaluating pirfenidone (studies 004 and 006), patients with mild-to-moderate IPF were treated with pirfenidone or placebo. Study 004 and pooled analysis of primary endpoint data from both studies showed that pirfenidone significantly reduced decline in percent-predicted forced vital capacity (FVC) compared with placebo (p<0.005). Evidence of beneficial effects of pirfenidone treatment was also observed with regard to several secondary endpoints. Pirfenidone was generally well tolerated, with the most common side effects being gastrointestinal and photosensitivity. Data from the RECAP extension phase of the CAPACITY studies, where patients were treated with pirfenidone for up to three years, further support the manageable tolerability profile of pirfenidone. The efficacy data, coupled with long-term safety data, provide further evidence of a clinically-meaningful treatment effect with pirfenidone in patients with IPF.
Several groups have described a syndrome in which idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) coexists with pulmonary emphysema. This comes as no surprise since both diseases are associated with a history of ...exposure to cigarette smoke. The syndrome of combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema (CPFE) is characterised by upper lobe emphysema and lower lobe fibrosis. Physiological testing of these patients reveals preserved lung volume indices contrasted by markedly impaired diffusion capacity. The incidence of CPFE remains unknown but several case series suggest that this subgroup may comprise up to 35% of patients with IPF. CPFE is a strong determinant of associated pulmonary hypertension (PH). In addition, CPFE has major effects on measures of physiological function, exercise capacity and prognosis, and may affect the results of pulmonary fibrosis trials. Further studies are needed to ascertain the aetiology, morbidity, mortality and management of the CPFE syndrome, with or without PH, and to evaluate novel therapeutic options in CPFE.
Patients with certain types of fibrosing interstitial lung disease (ILD) are at risk of developing a progressive phenotype characterised by self-sustaining fibrosis, decline in lung function, ...worsening quality of life, and early mortality. It has been proposed that such progressive fibrosing ILDs, which show commonalities in clinical behaviour and in the pathogenetic mechanisms that drive progressive fibrosis, may be "lumped" together for the purposes of clinical research and, potentially, for treatment. At present, no drugs are approved for the treatment of ILDs other than nintedanib and pirfenidone for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. For other progressive fibrosing ILDs, the mainstay of drug therapy is immunosuppression. However, it is postulated that, once the response to lung injury in fibrosing ILDs has reached the stage at which fibrosis has become progressive and self-sustaining, targeted antifibrotic therapy would be required to slow disease progression. Nintedanib, an intracellular inhibitor of tyrosine kinases, has shown antifibrotic, anti-inflammatory and vascular remodelling effects in several non-clinical models of fibrosis, irrespective of the trigger for the injury. Ongoing clinical trials will provide insight into the role of antifibrotic treatment with nintedanib or pirfenidone in the management of fibrosing ILDs with a progressive phenotype.
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic, irreversible, progressively destructive lung disease that culminates in respiratory failure and death. Randomised controlled trials have demonstrated ...that treatment of IPF patients with pirfenidone reduces lung function decline, improves progression-free survival and significantly reduces the risk of all-cause mortality at 1 year. Pirfenidone has been shown to have a favourable safety profile and was generally well tolerated over the long term in clinical trials and real-world experience. However, side-effect management is critical to help some patients remain on treatment over the long term. The primary treatment-related adverse events associated with pirfenidone therapy are gastrointestinal upset, rash and photosensitivity. Gastrointestinal events may be mitigated by ensuring that pirfenidone is taken with food, while skin symptoms may be reduced by avoiding sun exposure and frequent use of sunblock. Educating patients about the potential for these adverse events to occur and providing instructions prior to treatment to avoid adverse drug reactions are an important means of ensuring patients may derive the important benefits provided by long-term treatment with pirfenidone.
In a placebo-controlled trial, treatment with the preferential phosphodiesterase 4B inhibitor BI 1015550 prevented a decrease in lung function over a 12-week period in patients with idiopathic ...pulmonary fibrosis.
Objective: Some patients with interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) other than idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) develop a progressive fibrosing phenotype. We investigated the diagnosis and management ...of non-IPF ILDs using data from a survey of physicians and from US insurance claims.
Methods: Pulmonologists, rheumatologists and internists in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, UK and US who had managed ≥10 patients with non-IPF ILDs in the past year, including those with progressive fibrosing ILDs, completed an online survey. Data on US insurance and prescription claims were obtained from a repository that aggregates data on claims routed from providers or pharmacies to payers.
Results: In May-June 2017, 243 pulmonologists, 203 rheumatologists and 40 internists completed an online survey. Respondents estimated that 18-32% of patients diagnosed with non-IPF ILDs develop progressive fibrosis and that time from symptom onset to death in these patients was 61-80 months. Drug treatment was given to 50-75% of patients with non-IPF progressive fibrosing ILDs. Reasons for patients not being treated included that physicians considered patients to have mild or slowly progressing disease, or did not believe that available treatments are effective or well tolerated. Corticosteroids were the preferred first-line treatment for all types of non-IPF ILD. There was considerable heterogeneity in preferences for second- and third-line treatments. US insurance claims data from 3823 patients indicated that, in 2016, 50-75% of patients with ILDs received drug treatment (mostly corticosteroids) for their ILD.
Conclusions: Physicians estimate that 18-32% of patients diagnosed with non-IPF ILDs develop a progressive fibrosing phenotype and that these patients experience significant delays in the diagnosis of ILD and the detection of progressive fibrosis. Between 25% and 50% of patients with progressive fibrosing ILDs do not receive drug therapy. There is an unmet need for effective and well tolerated treatments for progressive fibrosing ILDs.
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