PURPOSE OF REVIEW Induced sputum is a particularly useful procedure since it provides information on the cellular and molecular constituents in inflammation. Extensive work has demonstrated the application of induced sputum in the management of asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and chronic bronchitis, but less attention has been paid to its efficacy in diagnosing interstitial lung d...

INTRODUCTION The functional evaluation has become increasingly important in the understanding and management of patients with interstitial lung diseases. The cardiopulmonary exercise test and the six-minute walk test (6MWT), through their isolated variables, have been used to do this evaluation, with some limitations. OBJECTIVES We proposed a new composite index (desaturation distance ratio u...

Background: Interstitial lung diseases are a diverse group of diseases that predominantly affect the lung interstitium and share similar clinical and radiological manifestations. Most patients have nonspecific respiratory complaints and the first suggestion of the disease is usually by a chest radiograph. However many patients of interstitial lung disease can have a normal chest radiogram; in t...

Correspondence 8 . Samara KD , Tzortzaki EG , Neofytou E , et al . Somatic DNA alterations in lung epithelial barrier cells in COPD patients . Pulm Pharmacol Ther . 2010 ; 23 ( 3 ): 208 214 . 9 . Makris D , Tzanakis N , Damianaki A , et al . Microsatellite DNA instability and COPD exacerbations . Eur Respir J . 2008 ; 32 ( 3 ): 612 618 . 10 . Matzinger P . The danger model: a renewed sense of s...

Cigarette smoke consists of several chemical compounds with a variety of effects in many organs. In the lung, apart being the main cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, carcinoma and idiopathic spontaneous pneumothorax, tobacco smoke is associated with interstitial lung diseases (ILDs), including respiratory bronchiolitis-associated ILD (RB-ILD), desquamative interstitial pneumonia (D...