Seminars in respiratory and critical care medicine
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Semin Respir Crit Care Med · Jun 2016
ReviewDiffuse Cystic Lung Diseases: Diagnostic Considerations.
Diffuse cystic lung disease (DCLD) is a group of heterogeneous diseases that present as diffuse cystic changes in the lung on computed tomography of the chest. Most DCLD diseases are rare, although they might resemble common diseases such as emphysema and bronchiectasis. ⋯ Investigations for DCLD include high-resolution computed tomography, biochemical and histopathological studies, genetic tests, pulmonary function tests, and bronchoscopic and video-assisted thoracoscopic biopsies. A proposed diagnostic algorithm would enhance ease of diagnosing most cases of DCLD.
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Medical therapy for idiopathic fibrosis remains controversial. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) was uniformly a disease that progressed inexorably, typically leading to death within 3 to 5 years from onset of symptoms. Until recently, lung transplantation was the only effective transplant option. ⋯ Nonetheless, these agents bring a glimmer of hope to patients with this deadly disease. The appropriate indications for initiating therapy, best candidates for therapy, and possible role for combination therapy remain controversial. Additional studies using agents that attenuate or abrogate profibrotic cytokines and chemokines may provide even further improvement in the future.
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Semin Respir Crit Care Med · Jun 2016
ReviewIdiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: Epidemiology, Clinical Features, Prognosis, and Management.
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a specific form of chronic interstitial lung pneumonia associated with the histologic pattern of usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP). Although UIP is a distinct histologic lesion, this histologic pattern is not specific for IPF and can also be found in other diseases (e.g., connective tissue disease and asbestosis). Clinical features of IPF include progressive cough, dyspnea, restrictive ventilatory defect, and progressive fibrosis and destruction of the lung parenchyma. ⋯ Mean survival from the onset of symptoms approximates 3 to 5 years. Medical treatment is only modestly effective, primarily by slowing the rate of disease progression. Lung transplantation is the best therapeutic option.
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Semin Respir Crit Care Med · Jun 2016
ReviewNonspecific Interstitial Pneumonia: What Is the Optimal Approach to Management?
We reviewed current aspects of the clinical and pathogenic profile of nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP), to better elucidate the complex issue of management and treatment options for NSIP patients. Recent findings suggest that idiopathic NSIP is a complex clinical entity with a disease spectrum that includes at least three different phenotypes: NSIP associated with autoimmune features, emphysema, and familial interstitial lung disease. This distinction, based mainly on clinical findings, may be of critical importance when it comes to making a decision on patients' management. ⋯ Second, the "highly fibrotic" subgroup that shows prominent reticular changes and traction bronchiectasis by HRCT, high fibrotic background on biopsy, and no lymphocytosis on BAL. The latter fibrotic NSIP is the subgroup with less potential to respond to immunosuppressive treatment and a marginal risk to evolve into "full-blown idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis." The management of patients with fibrotic, progressive, and immunosuppressive treatment, refractory NSIP remains uncertain, and further studies are needed to address the role of antifibrotic drug in this settings. Oxygen therapy, pulmonary rehabilitation, and lung transplantation are of importance in the current management of severe, progressive, and refractory NSIP patients.
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Semin Respir Crit Care Med · Jun 2016
ReviewCurrent Approach to Diagnosis and Management of Pulmonary Eosinophilic Syndromes: Eosinophilic Pneumonias, Eosinophilic Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis, and Hypereosinophilic Syndrome.
Eosinophils play a key role in orchestrating the complex clinicopathological pulmonary and extrapulmonary disease features in patients with eosinophilic syndromes. Eosinophilic pulmonary syndromes consist of a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by the presence of peripheral blood eosinophilia and/or eosinophilic-related pulmonary impairment. ⋯ In this article, we discuss acute and chronic eosinophilic pneumonias, eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis, and the hypereosinophilic syndromes. The mainstay of therapy for these disorders has been corticosteroids; however, recent and ongoing studies have provided strong grounds for optimism for specific targeted treatment approaches.