This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Hi, everyone. Dr Chandrasekaran here. Today, I’m going to talk about interstitial lung disease. This is a common diagnosis that we as pulmonologists see, whether it’s inpatient or outpatient, as this is associated with many various conditions.
When we do see these patients, our first clue into their disease process is to obtain a high-resolution CT scan. It should be high resolution, specifically, as this can allow us to see inspiration, expiration, supine, and prone to differentiate between atelectasis and fibrosis.This then allows us to categorize if the fibrosis is all over or if it’s localized to a specific area.
Then we obtain a bronchoscopic alveolar lavage sample or a tissue biopsy, and this can tell us what types of cells are found in it. We can send this specimen off for vasculitis along with rheumatologic diseases.
We also do serological markers to test for rheumatic panel, including the most common ones, which are rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogren’s disease, and sclerodermas. All of these can affect the lungs. We also look for vascular disease, as these can also affect the lungs, and the treatment can differ among these.
Pulmonary functiontests are important in these patients to check and to monitor their [forced vital capacity] and their total lung capacity. Once this does start to decline, these patients rapidly go on oxygen to help them perform activities of daily living.
There are many different treatments now that are coming out, but the mainstay is steroids, something to decrease the inflammation, and immunosuppress these patients.
