I recognize lung fibrosis by these symptoms | The pulmonary fibrosis

I recognize lung fibrosis by these symptoms

In the early stages, the symptoms of pulmonary fibrosis are often non-specific.In case of chronic cough and increasing shortness of breath under stress, one should think of a lung disease. In most cases it is a dry irritable cough. However, fever can also occur. Then sometimes the wrong diagnosis of pneumonia is made. As with other advanced lung diseases, patients with end-stage pulmonary fibrosis also suffer from respiratory distress at rest.

Diagnosis of pulmonary fibrosis

Pulmonary fibrosis is a very versatile disease and therefore often not easy to diagnose. However, initial indications are given by symptoms such as chronic coughing and shortness of breath under stress. The medical history can then be used to determine whether there are triggers for pulmonary fibrosis.

The physical examination is followed by a series of examinations. The first examination will certainly be an examination of lung function. This can even be carried out in a family doctor’s practice.

This will confirm the suspicion of pulmonary fibrosis. Then the journey continues to the specialist. Here, imaging examinations such as an X-ray and computer tomography are carried out.

High-resolution computed tomography is the most important diagnostic tool. An inconspicuous finding in this examination rules out pulmonary fibrosis. In the case of pulmonary fibrosis, abnormalities are usually already apparent in the conventional X-ray examination of the chest.

Radiologists describe these as an increase in the drawing of the lung structure. Actually, the air-filled lung tissue should appear black in the X-ray image, while blood vessels and connective tissue septum appear white. In pulmonary fibrosis, connective tissue remodelling of the lung tissue occurs more frequently. This increase in connective tissue can be seen in the X-ray image. The examination of choice to confirm the diagnosis is high-resolution computed tomography (CT).

Treatment and therapy of pulmonary fibrosis

The connective tissue remodeling of the lung tissue in the context of pulmonary fibrosis is usually irreversible. There is no causal treatment for most forms of pulmonary fibrosis. Important therapeutic goals are therefore to prevent further progression of the disease by eliminating possible triggers, and to improve the quality of life by treating the symptoms as effectively as possible.

However, patients with the idiopathic form of pulmonary fibrosis usually respond less well to treatment. In the meantime, there are newer drugs that are approved for the treatment of the idiopathic form, such as pirfenidone and nintedanib. These are used to try to prevent further progression of the disease.

The last option for young patients in the final stages of pulmonary fibrosis is a lung transplant. For symptomatic therapy, all patients from a certain stage on receive long-term oxygen therapy, during which the patients receive supplementary oxygen almost all day.

  • If the triggers for pulmonary fibrosis are known, they should be eliminated.

    Patients who inhale dusts at work must be given a change of job.

  • If the cause is a rheumatic disease, it should be treated as optimally as possible.
  • Often pulmonary fibrosis itself also has an inflammatory component, which is why many patients are also treated with cortisone.

Pulmonary fibrosis is not curable to this day. Even the connective tissue changes that have already taken place in the lungs cannot be reversed. In addition, it depends on the trigger of pulmonary fibrosis whether the disease can be stopped in its progression.

In idiopathic forms, the trigger for pulmonary fibrosis is not known. There is therefore no causal therapy. The disease usually progresses further and further.

There is no cure at the present time. Of course, science is working flat out to find new drugs that can at least slow down the progression of the disease significantly. But so far there has been no breakthrough in research.

This is particularly burdensome for young patients, as life expectancy is significantly limited by the fact that the disease is not only a disease of the liver, but also of the kidneys. The only hope for these patients is a lung transplantation. Through transplantation, the patients gain significantly more quality of life and also a little more time. 5 years after a lung transplantation 70% of the transplanted patients are still alive and this number is constantly improving due to new immunosuppressive drugs. However, due to the lack of donor organs and the severity of the operation, lung transplantation is only an option for a few patients.