Acute exacerbation of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: a proposal
Published Web Location
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3883625/Abstract
Acute exacerbation of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) occurs in roughly 10% of patients annually, and is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in this disease. While currently defined as idiopathic acute worsenings, acute exacerbations of IPF may in fact have a variety of causes, in particular infection and aspiration. Central to the pathobiology of clinically meaningful events is a diffuse injury to the IPF lung manifest histopathologically as diffuse alveolar damage, and biologically as accelerated alveolar epithelial cell injury or repair. Based on these recent observations, we propose a new paradigm for acute exacerbation of IPF that removes the idiopathic requirement and focuses on the pathophysiological mechanism involved.
Many UC-authored scholarly publications are freely available on this site because of the UC's open access policies. Let us know how this access is important for you.