Extract
Up to 15% of patients with chronic interstitial lung disease (cILD) will remain clinically unclassifiable (i.e. unclassifiable ILD, uILD) despite thorough clinical evaluation and multidisciplinary team discussion (MDT) [1, 2]. This diagnostic uncertainty translates into uncertainty in expected prognosis and initial treatment approach (e.g. immunosuppression versus anti-fibrotic medications) for patients with uILD, and it often precludes enrolment into clinical trials. Peripheral blood telomere length (TL) is a genomic biomarker that has been associated with prognosis and harm from immunosuppression in IPF [3, 4]. TL has recently been associated with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF)-like morphologic features (i.e. features of usual interstitial pneumonia, UIP) and reduced survival in other forms of cILD [5–7]. Whether TL demonstrates similar associations in patients with uILD is unknown, but if so, its clinical measurement could reduce diagnostic and therapeutic uncertainty by determining which patients with uILD will have an IPF-like course. The aim of this study was to determine whether TL is associated with clinical features and outcomes in a cohort of patients with uILD.
Abstract
Peripheral blood telomere length predicts survival in patients with unclassifiable interstitial lung disease https://bit.ly/3e3j0sL
Footnotes
Conflict of interest: S. Liu has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: B.M. Elicker has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: T.S. Henry has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: E. Vittinghoff has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: J.A. Golden has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: K.D. Jones has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: P.J. Wolters reports grants from Genentech, grants and personal fees for advisory board work from Boehringer Ingelheim, personal fees for advisory board work from Blade Pharmaceuticals, grants and personal fees for lectures from Pliant, outside the submitted work.
Conflict of interest: B. Ley has nothing to disclose.
Support statement: Investigator initiated proposal from Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (BIPI; BIPI had no role in the design, analysis or interpretation of the results in this study; BIPI was given the opportunity to review the manuscript for medical and scientific accuracy as it relates to BIPI substances, as well as intellectual property considerations), Nina Ireland Program for Lung Health. Funding information for this article has been deposited with the Crossref Funder Registry.
- Received February 7, 2020.
- Accepted March 31, 2020.
- Copyright ©ERS 2020