Correlations between specific radiological patterns and survival in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Honeycombing in a high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) is known to be a risk factor for shortened survival in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), but few studies have evaluated the feasibility of exploiting other specific patterns for predicting survival.The aim of this study was to evaluate the extent of specific HRCT patterns in IPF and to study their correlation with clinical features, pulmonary function tests (PFT), and patient survival.Both the presence and extent of specific HRCT patterns, such as traction bronchiectasis, honeycombing, architectural distortion, reticulation, emphysema, and ground glass opacity, in 132 HRCT examinations were scored semi-quantitatively in three zones of each lung. The HRCT examinations were re-classified according to the 2011 and 2018 international statements. Correlations were calculated between the specific HRCT patterns, clinical features, PFT, and survival. The variables were analyzed in different HRCT categories according to the 2011 international statement.The extent of traction bronchiectasis and the presence of emphysema, after corrections, correlated with shortened survival (p=0.011 and p=0.031, respectively). The possible usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) group had better median survival than the definite UIP patients (61 v. 37 months, p=0.026). Survival was also longer in patients without honeycombing (75 v. 37 months, p=0.001), traction bronchiectasis (77 v. 37 months, p=0.015), architectural distortion (...
Source: European Respiratory Journal - Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Idiopathic interstitial pneumonias Source Type: research