Influence of human T lymphotrophic virus type I on cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis − HTLV-I associated fibrosing alveolitis: proposal of a new clinical entity

Prognosis of cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis.

We have analysed retrospectively 100 consecutive patients with cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis, who were treated with corticosteroids and followed for at least three years. At the time of diagnosis biopsy specimens were available in 64 cases. The clinical, radiographic, physiological, and histological features and the response to steroid treatment have been correlated with the prognosis. An ea...

Epstein-Barr virus and cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis.

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is an ubiquitous infectious agent which causes seroconversion with measurable antibody levels in approximately 90% of young children in tropical regions and 30-40% of children from developed countries in the Northern hemsiphere.' It is a member of the herpes virus family and has a double stranded DNA genome of 172 000 base pairs that is divided into five unique regi...

Autoantibodies in cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis

The pathogenesis of cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis (CFA) involves injury, an immune/inflammatory response and fibrosis. The cause of the injury is unknown, but the identification of serum autoantibodies makes an autoimmune aetiology attractive. The core study on which this commentary is based used novel cloning and serum screening technologies in order to identify new public and private autoa...

Cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis: clinical features and their influence on survival.

Survival in fibrosing alveolitis associated with rheumatoid arthritis is better than cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis.

SIR, Hubbard and Venn w1x have used a novel approach by using the general practice research database to show that the survival in fibrosing alveolitis associated with connective tissue disease (FA-CTD) is as bad as in lone cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis (LCFA). The result is contrary to current view w2x that FA-CTD is more benign than LCFA. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) accounts for the major pro...