TY - JOUR T1 - Early COVID-19 Lockdown in Greece and IPF: A beneficial “impact” beyond any expectation JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J DO - 10.1183/13993003.03111-2020 SP - 2003111 AU - Spyros A. Papiris AU - Demosthenes Bouros AU - Katerina Markopoulou AU - Lykourgos Kolilekas AU - Andriana I. Papaioannou AU - Vasilios Tzilas AU - Argyrios Tzouvelekis AU - Eva Fouka AU - Despoina Papakosta AU - Zoe Daniil AU - Paschalis Steiropoulos AU - Athina Gogali AU - Ilias C. Papanikolaou AU - Areti Xyfteri AU - Aggeliki Haritou AU - Ioanna Korbila AU - Ioannis P. Tomos AU - Stylianos Loukides AU - Rita Bellelli AU - Georgia Kounti AU - Christina Rampiadou AU - Theodoros Karampitsakos AU - Ilias Dimeas AU - Paraskevi Kirgou AU - Andromachi Bompoki AU - Eirini Vasarmidi AU - Konstantinos Loverdos AU - Elvira-Markela Antonogiannaki AU - Myrto Blizou AU - Evangelos Bouros AU - Konstantinos Kagouridis AU - Maria Maniati AU - Anna Karakatsani AU - Katerina M. Antoniou AU - Effrosyni D. Manali Y1 - 2020/01/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/early/2020/11/19/13993003.03111-2020.abstract N2 - Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is an irreversibly progressive diffuse lung disease characterised by a usual interstitial pneumonia pattern (UIP). IPF presents with an ominous prognosis with a median survival of around 5 years [1]. The development of an acute exacerbation (AE), histologically diffuse alveolar damage (DAD) upon UIP, represents the most devastating of its complications and leads to death the majority of patients admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) [2–4]. Viral infections in the setting of an altered host lung microbiome are likely important triggers of IPF-AE's and subsequent ARDS [4, 5].During the lockdown, IPF patients experienced lower than expected COVID-19 suggesting that simple measures for the winter months, such as face masking, clean hands, physical distancing could be adopted as promising advances in non-pharmacological therapy. ER -