Publication

Abstract : Background Diffuse parenchymal lung diseases (DPLDs) include the idiopathic interstitial pneumonias, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, connective tissue disease-related interstital lung disease (ILD), lymphangioleiomyomatosis, sarcoidosis, etc. The prevalence and outcome of DPLD is not studied well across India. The current study was aimed at studying clinical radiological spectrum of DPLD in India. Aim The primary objective was to study the clinical radiological spectrum of DPLD, and the secondary objective was to identify the occurrence of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and risk factors combined with IPF in a study population. Materials and methods All patients diagnosed with DPLDs in department of pulmonary medicine during the study period were included. SPSS 20 version was used for doing statistical analysis. P value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results Mean age of the study cohort was 55±15.45 years. There were 83 (63.4%) female patients, and 11.6% of the patients gave history of prior antituberculosis medicine. Most common symptoms were gradually progressing dyspnoea (94.5%) followed by dry cough (78.29%). The commonest finding on chest radiograph in our series was reticulonodular pattern (80.2%). The commonest pattern on high-resolution computed tomography was fibrosis in interstitum (49.9%). The commonest cause of DPLD in study was connective tissue disorder (34.9%) followed by IPF (23.25%) and sarcoidosis (17.05%). Of all patients, 47 showed improvement on the six-minute walk test. Smoking was one of the major risk factor associated with IPF, and 66.7% of patients with IPF were smokers (P<0.001). The other risk factor associated with IPF was gastro esophageal reflux disease (GERD) (P=0.003). Conclusions Connective tissue disease (CTD)-related ILD was the commonest DPLD followed by IPF and non specific interstitial pneumonitis (NSIP) in the present study. IPF was present in 23% of the cases. Smoking and GERD were the commonest risk factors associated with IPF.