Recognition of the Signs and Symptoms of Diseases Associated with Pulmonary Fibrosis

Program Overview

Signs and symptoms of progressing fibrotic disease are often common to many conditions such as IPF and SSc-ILD and patients with these diseases are often misdiagnosed or experience a delay in diagnosis. Awareness of common and distinctive features of these different diseases could alert physicians and reduce delays in diagnosis. In this podcast, Dr. Saketkoo explores strategies to help assess patients and to recognize when to consider the presence of a progressive fibrotic disease which in SSc-ILD correlates to survival.

What questions should we be asking our patients, and how should we ask them to better assess their clinical status?
What is the current status of knowledge relative to identifying and differentiating pulmonary fibrotic diseases?
Are assessment and diagnostic guidelines available for pulmonary fibrotic disease?
Can we identify which patients with reduced lung function will have progressive fibrotic disease?

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be better able to:

Describe the signs and symptoms and diagnostic processes for identifying progressing fibrotic diseases with pulmonary manifestations.
Discuss techniques to screen patients for ILD.