Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Differential Diagnoses

  • Author: Amanda Godfrey, MD; Chief Editor: Zab Mosenifar, MD   more...
 
Updated: May 23, 2012
 
 

Differential Diagnoses

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Contributor Information and Disclosures
Author

Amanda Godfrey, MD  Fellow, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Henry Ford Hospital

Amanda Godfrey, MD is a member of the following medical societies: American College of Chest Physicians, American College of Physicians, American Medical Association, American Thoracic Society, and Michigan State Medical Society

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Coauthor(s)

Daniel R Ouellette, MD, FCCP  Associate Professor of Medicine, Wayne State University School of Medicine; Consulting Staff, Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine Service, Henry Ford Health System

Daniel R Ouellette, MD, FCCP is a member of the following medical societies: American College of Chest Physicians and American Thoracic Society

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Specialty Editor Board

Stephen P Peters, MD, PhD, FACP, FAAAAI, FCCP, FCPP  Professor of Genomics and Personalized Medicine Research, Internal Medicine, and Pediatrics, Associate Director, Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine Research, Director of Research, Section on Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy and Immunologic Diseases, Wake Forest University School of Medicine

Stephen P Peters, MD, PhD, FACP, FAAAAI, FCCP, FCPP is a member of the following medical societies: American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology, American Association of Immunologists, American College of Chest Physicians, American College of Physicians, American Federation for Medical Research, American Thoracic Society, and Sigma Xi

Disclosure: See below for list of all activities None None

Francisco Talavera, PharmD, PhD  Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Pharmacy; Editor-in-Chief, Medscape Drug Reference

Disclosure: Medscape Salary Employment

Daniel R Ouellette, MD, FCCP  Associate Professor of Medicine, Wayne State University School of Medicine; Consulting Staff, Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine Service, Henry Ford Health System

Daniel R Ouellette, MD, FCCP is a member of the following medical societies: American College of Chest Physicians and American Thoracic Society

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Timothy D Rice, MD  Associate Professor, Departments of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, St Louis University School of Medicine

Timothy D Rice, MD is a member of the following medical societies: American Academy of Pediatrics and American College of Physicians

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Chief Editor

Zab Mosenifar, MD  Director, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Director, Women's Guild Pulmonary Disease Institute, Professor and Executive Vice Chair, Department of Medicine, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, University of California, Los Angeles, David Geffen School of Medicine

Zab Mosenifar, MD is a member of the following medical societies: American College of Chest Physicians, American College of Physicians, American Federation for Medical Research, and American Thoracic Society

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Additional Contributors

The authors and editors of Medscape Reference gratefully acknowledge the contributions of previous authors, Rajesh G. Patel, MD, and Javier I. Diaz, MD, to the development and writing of this article.

References

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Chest radiograph of a patient with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis showing bilateral lower lobe reticular opacities (red circles).
Classic subpleural honeycombing (red circle) in a patient with a diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
A patient with IPF and a confirmed histologic diagnosis of usual interstitial pneumonia. Note the reticular opacities (red circle) distributed in both lung bases and the minimal ground-glass opacities (blue circle).
A patient with nonspecific interstitial pneumonia. Note the predominance of ground-glass opacities (blue circles) and a few reticular lines (red arrow).
Patchwork distribution of abnormalities in a classic example of usual interstitial pneumonia (low-magnification photomicrograph; hematoxylin and eosin stain; original magnification, X4). Courtesy of Chad Stone, MD.
Table 1. Scoring for mortality risk in IPF.
PredictorPoints
SexFemale0
Male1
Age (years)≥600
61-651
>652
FVC (% predicted)>750
50-751
< 502
DLCO (% predicted)>550
36-551
≤352
Cannot perform3
Table 2. Staging and mortality risk for IPF.
StageIIIIII
Points0-34-56-8
Mortality
1-year5.616.239.2
2-year10.929.962.1
3-year16.342.176.8
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