Advances in respiratory medicine
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Review
IPF and CPFE - the two different entities or two different presentations of the same disease?
In this article the co-existence of pulmonary emphysema with lung fibrosis of typical pattern and distribution for usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) was compared with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) alone. Author discusses the etiopathogenesis of these diseases, differences in signaling pathways and the role of senescent cells. Moreover, clinical course, pulmonary function tests as well as main complications are reviewed. However, the lack of well-established diagnostic criteria for CPFE along with mainly retrospective character of the studies make current knowledge about this entity rather deficient.
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Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors (IMT) of the lung, first reported in 1939, are considered a subset of inflammatory pseudo -tumors. They are a distinctive lesions composed of myofibroblastic spindle cells accompanied by an inflammatory infiltrate of plasma cells, lymphocytes, and eosinophils. IMTs may be benign, invade surrounding structures, undergo malignant transformation, recur or may even metastasize. ⋯ Patients may be asymptomatic, or present with cough, hemoptysis, dyspnea, pleuritic pain, constitutional symptoms or pneumonia. In this article we review the pathophysiology, genetics, clinical presentation, imaging findings of IMT of the lung. We also discuss the various surgical and non-surgical treatment options and the prognosis associated with this disease.