HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplementary tables and figure Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Permissions Request Permissions Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Park, I. N. Articles by Colby, T. V. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Park, I. N. Articles by Colby, T. V.

Clinical course and lung function change of idiopathic nonspecific interstitial pneumonia

¹ Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, ² Dept of Radiology, ³ Dept of Rheumatology, and ⁴ Dept of Pathology, University of Ulsan, College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea, ⁵ Laboratory and Anatomic Pathology, National Hospital Organization Kinki-chuo Chest Medical Center, Osaka, Japan, ⁶ Dept of Histopathology, Royal Brompton Hospital, London, UK, and ⁷ Dept of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ, USA, ⁸ These authors contributed equally to the study as first authors.

CORRESPONDENCE: D. S. Kim, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, 388-1 Pungnap-2dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul 138-736, Korea. Fax: 82 230106968. E-mail: dskim{at}amc.seoul.kr

Keywords: Clinical course, fibrotic nonspecific interstitial pneumonia, pulmonary function test, recurrence

Received: November 23, 2007
Accepted September 16, 2008

Most studies of idiopathic nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP) have primarily studied mortality. In order to clarify the detailed outcome and prognostic markers in idiopathic NSIP, the clinical course with initial radiological and clinical features was analysed.

The clinical course of 83 patients who were classified with idiopathic NSIP (72 fibrotic, 11 cellular; 27 males and 56 females; mean±SD age 54.4±10.1 yrs) was retrospectively analysed.

In fibrotic NSIP, 16 (22%) patients died of NSIP-related causes with a median (range) follow-up of 53 (0.3–181) months. Despite the favourable survival (5-yr 74%), patients with fibrotic NSIP were frequently hospitalised with recurrence rate of 36%. Reduced forced vital capacity at 12 months was a predictor of mortality. On follow-up, lung function was improved or stable in 80% of the patients. The extent of consolidation and ground-glass opacity on initial high-resolution computed tomography correlated significantly with serial changes of lung function, and the presence of honeycombing was a predictor of poor prognosis. During follow-up, eight (10%) patients developed collagen vascular disease.

In conclusion, the overall prognosis of fibrotic nonspecific interstitial pneumonia was good; however, there were significant recurrences despite initial improvement and a subset of the patients did not respond to therapy. Some patients developed collagen vascular diseases at a later date.