Interstitial lung disease-A hospital based study

Abstract

Background: ILD includes more than 200 clinicopathologic entities characterized by inflammation and fibrosis of lung parenchyma.

OBJECTIVES: To study clinical, radiological, and histopathological characteristics of ILD in Kashmir.

STUDY DESIGN: Observational, prospective.

PARTICIPANTS: 200 patients were included in the study.

METHODS: Patients presenting in pulmonary OPD with cough and breathlessness were evaluated, those diagnosed with ILD were enrolled, and their clinical, radiological, and histopathological characteristics were studied. Patients with CTD ILD from rheumatology OPD were also included in the study.

RESULTS: Mean age of the study patients was 56.2 years, 61% were females, and 38.4% were males, 15.5% were smokers, the most common presenting symptom was dyspnea (78.9%) , and dry cough (65.9%) . ANA was the most common positive antibody in CTD ILD patients. UIP (34.5%) was the most common pattern of ILD on HRCT. Reticulonodular pattern (41.3%) was the most common pattern on chest X-ray. The restrictive pattern was found in 77.5% of patients with mean FVC 61.9% predicted.39 patients underwent histopathological/cytological diagnostic procedure; 15 TBLB (12 were diagnostic) , 10 surgical lung biopsies (9 were diagnostic) , 13 EBUS TBNA (all were diagnostic) , 1 CT guided biopsy, which was diagnostic.

CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS: The spectrum of ILDs at a tertiary care centre in North India was found to be comparable to various single centre studies from other parts of India.

Further studies are required from different regions of J&K, so that burden of ILDs can be defined accurately, and appropriate management strategies and clinical trials be devised accordingly.

There is a call for a global ILD registry so that the global ILD disease burden could be ascertained; this study will, hopefully, be a small contribution in that direction.