Interstitial pneumonia, or interstitial pulmonary fibrosis, has similar symptoms in both children and adults. However, they are nonspecific, making interstitial pneumonia easily confused with other diseases. This can delay the correct diagnosis and, therefore, the implementation of the appropriate treatment. What are the causes and symptoms of interstitial pneumonia? What is the treatment?

Interstitial pneumoniaor interstitial pulmonary fibrosis is a disease of the alveoli, the essence of which is their inflammation, leading to pulmonary fibrosis.Interstitial pneumoniais a chronic and progressive disease.

There are several types of interstitial pneumonia:

  • Ordinary (ordinary) interstitial pneumonia (idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis)
  • non-specific (non-specific) interstitial pneumonia
  • cryptogenic organizing pneumonia
  • lymphocytic interstitial pneumonia
  • acute interstitial pneumonia (formerly Hamman-Rich syndrome)

Interstitial pneumonia - causes

Ordinary interstitial pneumonia

The cause of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is unknown. It is presumed to be a process of abnormal healing of multiple microscopic alveolar epithelial lesions by unspecified factors. However, according to some sources, 0.5-3.7 percent. cases, the disease runs in families and is inherited from it.³ The disease usually occurs in people over 50, more often in men. The incidence of the disease increases with age.

Inflammatory Interstitial Pneumonia

May occur in the course of connective tissue diseases (such as e.g. systemic sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren's syndrome, and dermatomyositis), allergic alveolitis, drug reactions. It occurs in people aged 40-50 and is not likely to be related to smoking.

Cryptogenic Organizing Pneumonia

Organizing pneumonia has in 2/3 cases an unknown cause, in the remaining cases it occurs in the course of diseases of the connective tissue, lung cancer or other organs, as a reaction to drugs, after organ transplants. It is also associated with infectious inflammationlungs.

Lymphocytic interstitial pneumonia

Its cause may not be known, but it is several times more likely the result of other diseases such as primary hypogammaglobulinemia, primary biliary cirrhosis, HIV infection, Ebstein-Barr virus, and connective tissue disease (often found in Sjögren's syndrome).

Acute interstitial pneumonia

The cause of this form of interstitial pneumonia is unknown. Infectious agents such as viruses, inhaled toxic agents and genetic predisposition are taken into account.

Interstitial pneumonia - symptoms

In all types of disease, its onset is tricky, often difficult to grasp. Patients report:

  • persistent dry cough
  • shortness of breath, initially with exertion and then at rest. This breathlessness can worsen for months or even years

In the case of common interstitial pneumonia, club fingers also appear (they occur in more than half of patients with this form of the disease).

In turn, cryptogenic organizing pneumonia resembles an acute viral infection with flu-like symptoms - apart from coughing and shortness of breath, there are also fever and weakness. The flu also resembles - but only initially - acute interstitial pneumonia.

Interstitial pneumonia - diagnosis

  • Auscultation of the patient
  • Pulmonary function test (the primary one is spirometry)
  • High-Resolution Chest X-ray / Lung Computed Tomography (TKWR)
  • microscopic examination of a part of the lung

Interstitial pneumonia - treatment and prognosis

Glycosteroids are used in all forms of interstitial pneumonia. The physician should refer the patient to a home oxygen treatment center. Then the patient receives a concentrator that constantly produces the oxygen he needs.

The worst prognosis is acute interstitial pneumonia. In this case, the effectiveness of the treatment is very low, and the mortality rate is 50-100%. 2 Ordinary interstitial pneumonia is also resistant to treatment. The average survival in this disease is comparable to that in neoplastic diseases and amounts to 2-3 years from the moment of diagnosis .¹

Category:

Respiratory system