• Somenath Kundu, Subhra Mitra, Joydeep Ganguly, Subhasis Mukherjee, Souvik Ray, and Ritabrata Mitra.
• Department of Respiratory Medicine, Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research and Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
• Lung India. 2014 Oct 1; 31 (4): 354-60.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the clinical spectrum of diffuse parenchymal lung diseases (DPLD) encountered in the Indian setting and to compare idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and connective tissue disease associated DPLD (CTD-DPLD), the two commonest aetiologies.Materials And MethodsA prospective study of clinical, imaging and laboratory parameters of patients diagnosed as DPLD and followed up in the Pulmonary Medicine Department of a tertiary-care teaching institution in eastern India was conducted over a period of one year.Results92 patients of DPLD were diagnosed in the study period with IPF (n = 35, 38.04%), CTD-DPLD (n = 29, 31.5%), hypersensitivity pneumonitis (n = 10, 10.9%), sarcoidosis (n = 5, 5.4%) and silicosis (n = 5, 5.4%) being the common causes. The CTD-DPLD group had a lower mean age (39.5 ± 1.86 vs 56.9 ± 1.12 years), a longer duration of symptoms (3.5 ± 0.27 vs 2.5 ± 0.26 years), more extra pulmonary manifestations, significantly more base line FVC and 6-minute-walk-distance than the IPF patients. 19 patients of IPF (54%) opted for treatment. All the IPF patients had a significant fall in FVC after six months (mean change -0.203 ± 0.01 litres) compared to the CTD-DPLD group (mean change - 0.05 ± 0.04 litres.).ConclusionCTD-DPLD patients belong to a younger age group, with longer duration of symptoms, more extrapulmonary features, better physiological parameters and better response to therapy than IPF patients. Larger prospective epidemiological studies and enrolment in clinical trials are necessary for better understanding of the spectrum of diffuse parenchymal lung disorders and their therapeutic options.

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