Nonspecific interstitial pneumonia and usual interstitial pneumonia: comparison of the clinicopathologic features and prognosis

Spectrum of Pulmonary Fibrosis from Interstitial Lung Abnormality to Usual Interstitial Pneumonia: Importance of Identification and Quantification of Traction Bronchiectasis in Patient Management

Following the introduction of a novel pathological concept of usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) by Liebow and Carrington in 1969, diffuse interstitial pneumonia has evolved into UIP, nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP), and interstitial lung abnormality (ILA); the histopathological and CT findings of these conditions reflect the required multidisciplinary team approach, involving pulmonologists, radiologists, and pathologists, for their diagnosis and management. Concomitantly, traction bronchiectasis and bronchiolectasis have been recognized as the most persistent and important indices of the severity and prognosis of fibrotic lung diseases. The traction bronchiectasis index (TBI) can stratify the prognoses of patients with ILAs. In this review, the evolutionary concepts of UIP, NSIP, and ILAs are summarized in tables and figures, with a demonstration of the correlation between CT findings and pathologic evaluation. The CT-based UIP score is being proposed to facilitate a better understanding of the spectrum of pulmonary fibrosis, from ILAs to UIP, with emphasis on traction bronchiectasis/bronchiolectasis.

Selection of glucocorticoid-sensitive patients in interstitial lung disease secondary to connective tissue diseases population by radiomics

Purpose

The effect of glucocorticoid(s) on connective tissue disease (CTD)-related interstitial lung disease (ILD) is controversial. This multicenter study aimed to identify glucocorticoid-sensitive patients using a radiomics approach.

Methods

A total of 416 CTD-ILD patients who began glucocorticoid treatment at the discretion of the attending physician, with or without cyclophosphamide, were included in this study. High doses were defined as pulsed intravenous methylprednisolone, an initial dose of 1 mg/kg/day of prednisolone or 0.8 mg/kg/day of methylprednisolone. Low doses were defined as those less than high doses. Radiomics features were manually extracted from primary lung lesions delineated on computed tomography images, and selected by variance, univariate feature selection, and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression model. The prediction models were developed using data from 309 patients from two centers and externally validated in 107 patients from four other hospitals.

Results

Treatment response in the training and validation groups was 38.5% and 36.4%, respectively. Eleven radiomics features were selected from 1,029 features with predictive value. Random forest models built for radiomics features to predict treatment response yielded a sensitivity of 0.897. The calibration curve of a nomogram demonstrated good agreement between prediction and observation. Decision curve analysis indicated that glucocorticoid was beneficial if the predicted response rate was 50%–60% for an individual. High doses of glucocorticoids and cyclophosphamide yielded superior efficacy.

Conclusion

Radiomics-based predictive models reliably identified glucocorticoid-sensitive CTD-ILD patients. Short-term, high-dose glucocorticoid with cyclophosphamide yielded promising results as a potential therapy.

Digital Clubbing Is Associated with Higher Serum KL-6 Levels and Lower Pulmonary Function in Patients with Interstitial Lung Disease

Background

Although digital clubbing is a common presentation in patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD), little has been reported regarding its role in assessing patients with ILD. This study evaluated patients with ILD for the presence of clubbing and investigated its association with clinical data.

Methods

We evaluated patients with ILD who visited the teaching hospital at which the study was conducted, between October 2014 and January 2015. Clubbing, evaluated using a Vernier caliper for individual patients, was defined as a phalangeal depth ratio > 1. We examined the association of clubbing with clinical data.

Results

Of 102 patients with ILD, we identified 17 (16.7%) with clubbing. The partial pressure of oxygen in arterial blood was lower (65.2 ± 5.9 mmHg versus 80.2 ± 3.1 mmHg; p=0.03), serum Krebs von den Lugen-6 (KL-6) levels were higher (1495.0 ± 277.4 U/mL versus 839.1 ± 70.2 U/mL; p=0.001), and the percent predicted diffusing capacity of carbon monoxide was lower (50.0 ± 6.0 versus 73.5 ± 3.1; p=0.002) in these patients with clubbing.

Conclusions

Patients with clubbing had lower oxygen levels, higher serum KL-6 levels, and lower pulmonary function than those without clubbing.

Reduced expression of BMP3 contributes to the development of pulmonary fibrosis and predicts the unfavorable prognosis in IIP patients

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and idiopathic nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (INSIP) are two related diseases involving varying degrees of pulmonary fibrosis with no effective cure. Bone morphogenetic protein 3 (BMP3) is a member of the transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) super-family, which has not been implicated in pulmonary fibrosis previously. In this study, we aimed to investigate the potential role of BMP3 playing in pulmonary fibrosis from clinical diagnosis to molecular signaling regulation. RNA sequencing was performed to explore the potential biomarker of IIP patients. The expression of BMP3 was evaluated in 83 cases of IPF and INSIP by immunohistochemistry. The function of BMP3 was investigated in both fibroblast cells and a bleomycin-induced murine pulmonary fibrosis model. The clinical relevance of BMP3 expression were analyzed in 47 IIP patients, which were included in 83 cases and possess more than five-year follow-up data. Both RNA-sequencing and immunohistochemistry staining revealed that BMP3 was significantly down-regulated in lung tissues of patients with IPF and INSIP. Consistently, lower expression of BMP3 also was found in pulmonary fibrotic tissues of bleomycin-induced mice model. Up-regulation of BMP3 prevented pulmonary fibrosis processing through inhibiting cellular proliferation of fibroblasts as well as TGF-β1 signal transduction. Finally, the relatively higher expression of BMP3 in IPF patients was associated with less/worse mortality. Intravenous injection of recombinant BMP3. Taken together, our results suggested that the low expression level of BMP3 may indicate the unfavorable prognosis of IPF patients, targeting BMP3 may represent a novel potential therapeutic method for pulmonary fibrosis management.