Research shows that patients with fibrotic interstitial lung disease hospitalized for acute respiratory worsening have a notable rate of morbidity regardless of an idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) diagnosis.
“Our findings suggest significant morbidity for all [fibrotic interstitial lung disease (f-ILD)] patients hospitalized with [acute respiratory worsening],” Teng Moua, MD, of the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues wrote. “While focus in the initial management of these patients may be to delineate [idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF)] from non-IPF disease and [acute exacerbation] from known causes of [acute respiratory worsening], overall in-hospital mortality appears to be no different between the two groups.”
Moua and colleagues divided 220 patients with a total of 311 cases acute respiratory worsening into IPF and non-IPF groups, according to the abstract. Of these hospital admissions, researchers found 52% were for suspected acute exacerbation, 20% were for infection and 15% were for sub-acute progression of disease. Researchers observed a similar mortality rate among the IPF group (55%) and the non-IPF group (45%). Further, patients with a suspected acute exacerbation had a 3.1 OR for mortality compared with other subgroups (95% CI, 1.9-5.14).
The researchers reported a 22% 1-year survival rate for the patients in spite of a Charleston Comorbidity Index score of 5.4, which translated to an 89% expected likelihood of 1-year survival, according to the abstract. Moua and colleagues noted similar survival post-discharge for patients with suspected acute exacerbation and patients admitted with secondary characteristics of acute respiratory worsening in IPF and non-IPF groups.
