Table 8.

Key points: Interstitial lung disease

• Smoking-related interstitial disease includes respiratory bronchiolitis, desquamative interstitial pneumonia, and pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis

• In patients with no clear identifiable cause of their interstitial disease, a diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is made if they meet the ATS diagnostic criteria on imaging without a surgical biopsy or a definite/possible UIP pattern on HRCT with a biopsy showing definite or probable UIP

• Two new antifibrotic drugs, nintedanib and pirfenidone, have been shown to slow the progression of disease as measured by a reduced rate of decline in forced vital capacity

Definition of abbreviations: ATS = American Thoracic Society; HRCT = high-resolution computed tomography; UIP = usual interstitial pneumonia.