Mild pulmonary fibrosis

Because the lungs control the body's respiratory function, when lung fibrosis occurs, it will seriously affect a person's normal breathing and even lead to death due to respiratory failure. Pulmonary fibrosis occurs most of the time as a reaction of the body's self-protection mechanism after the lungs are damaged. What treatment measures can be taken if you suffer from mild pulmonary fibrosis?

examine

1. Physical examination

Progressive shortness of breath, dry cough, and moist rales or crackles in the lungs.

2. X-ray examination

Although there is dyspnea in the early stage, the chest X-ray may be basically normal; in the middle and late stages, diffuse reticular or nodular shadows appear in the middle and lower fields of both lungs, and pleural effusion, thickening or calcification may occasionally be seen.

3. Laboratory examination

It can be seen that the erythrocyte sedimentation rate increases, which generally has no special significance.

4. Pulmonary function test

Reduced lung volumes, decreased diffusion capacity, and hypoxemia may be seen.

5. Lung biopsy

Can provide pathological basis.

Pulmonary fibrosis diagnosis

The diagnosis can be confirmed based on clinical manifestations, imaging, pulmonary function tests, etc.

Pulmonary fibrosis treatment

1. Medication

(1) Pirfenidone:

Pirfenidone is one of the two drugs recommended for treatment in the "Recommended Guidelines for the Clinical Treatment of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis" jointly issued by the American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society/Japanese Thoracic Society/Latin American Thoracic Association in 2015. It is also the world's first drug approved for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (i.e. pulmonary fibrosis of unknown cause, abbreviated as IPF in English). After 52 weeks of continuous treatment with pirfenidone, IPF patients can slow down the decline of lung function indicators such as FVC and DLCO, prolong their progression-free survival (PFS), and reduce their risk of death.

(2) Nintedanib: Nintedanib is one of the two drugs with the highest recommendation level (conditional recommendation) in the "Recommended Guidelines for the Clinical Treatment of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis" jointly issued by the American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society/Japanese Thoracic Society/Latin American Thoracic Association in 2015.

2. Non-drug treatment

① Oxygen therapy; ② Mechanical ventilation; ③ Pulmonary rehabilitation; ④ Lung transplantation.

Causes

When the lungs are damaged due to various reasons, the interstitium will secrete collagen for repair. If the repair is excessive, that is, fibroblasts overproliferate and extracellular matrix accumulates in large quantities, pulmonary fibrosis will form.