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Review
. 2019 Oct 1;28(153):190044.
doi: 10.1183/16000617.0044-2019. Print 2019 Sep 30.

Comorbidities in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: an underestimated issue

Antonella Caminati  1 , Chiara Lonati  2 , Roberto Cassandro  1 , Davide Elia  1 , Giuseppe Pelosi  3   4 , Olga Torre  1 , Maurizio Zompatori  5   6 , Elisabetta Uslenghi  5 , Sergio Harari  1   7
Affiliations
Review

Comorbidities in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: an underestimated issue

Antonella Caminati et al. Eur Respir Rev. .

Abstract

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive and fibrosing lung disease with a poor prognosis. Between 60% and 70% of IPF patients die of IPF; the remaining causes of death may be due to comorbidities occurring in this ageing population. Interest in the role played by comorbidities in IPF has increased in the past few years. The optimal clinical management of IPF is multifaceted and not only involves antifibrotic treatment, but also vaccinations, oxygen supplementation, evaluation of nutritional status as well as psychological support and patient education. Symptom management, pulmonary rehabilitation, palliative care and treatment of comorbidities represent further areas of clinical intervention. This review analyses the major comorbidities observed in IPF, focusing on those that have the greatest impact on mortality and quality of life (QoL). The identification and treatment of comorbidities may help to improve patients' health-related QoL (i.e. sleep apnoea and depression), while some comorbidities (i.e. lung cancer, cardiovascular diseases and pulmonary hypertension) influence survival. It has been outlined that gathering comorbidities data improves the prediction of survival beyond the clinical and physiological parameters of IPF.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: A. Caminati reports personal fees from Roche and Boehringer Ingelheim, outside the submitted work. Conflict of interest: C. Lonati has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: R. Cassandro has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: D. Elia has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: G. Pelosi has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: O. Torre has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: M. Zompatori has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: E. Uslenghi has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: S. Harari reports grants and personal fees from Roche, Actelion and Boehringer Ingelheim, outside the submitted work.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Left lung cancer in a patient with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Right pulmonary embolism in a patient with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. a) Mediastinal window. b) Parenchymal window.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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