Table 1.

Clinical characteristics, pulmonary function test data and biopsy complications

Characteristics	Patient 1	Patient 2	Patient 3	Patient 4
Age at diagnosis (years)	67	59	64	60
Gender	Female	Female	Female	Female
Smoking status	Never smoker	Never smoker	Never smoker	Ex-smoker
Personal history	None	Pulmonary tuberculosis; post-infectious bronchiectasis; recurrent respiratory infections	Occupational exposure (varnishes, 2 years; paints and butyl acetate, 3 years) Exposure to birds at the diagnosis for 3 years	Occupational exposure (carpets and cork) Previous diagnosis of chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis
Family history	None	None	Mother died of IPF3	None
Symptoms	DOE2, nonproductive cough	DOE2, productive cough	DOE2, nonproductive cough	DOE2, nonproductive cough
Pulmonary function data	Mild restrictive ventilatory impairment with mild decreased of diffusion capacity	Moderate restrictive ventilatory impairment with severe decrease of diffusion capacity	Mild restrictive ventilatory impairment with mild decreased of diffusion capacity	Mild restrictive ventilatory impairment with mild decreased of diffusion capacity
Biopsy complications
1. Subcutaneous emphysema	Yes	No	No	No
2. Pneumothorax	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
CTP1	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Length of hospital stay	17 days (1st biopsy inconclusive; the two biopsies were performed with a 10-day interval)	5 days	3 days	1 day
Follow-up	Died - 20 months after diagnosis	Alive - 36 months after diagnosis	Alive - 24 months after diagnosis	Alive - 18 months after diagnosis

¹CTP - chest tube placement, ²DOE - dyspnoea on exertion, ³IPF - idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis