Interstitial lung disease: state of the clinical art

Interstitial lung diseases pose a great challenge to the clinician because of the indolent and variably active nature of these disorders and the limited number of therapeutic options. Adjunctive therapy includes supplemental oxygen in hypoxic patients, bronchodilators in patients with an obstructive lung component, and aggressive use of antibiotics in febrile patients on potent immunosuppressive therapy and suspected or confirmed infections. In younger patients who present late in their illness or deteriorate on therapy, lung transplantation is the only option. Recent advances in our knowledge of the cellular and molecular mechanisms operating in ILD and techniques which include gene amplification and cloning promise to yield more effective treatments for these diseases which currently produce a high incidence of morbidity and mortality.