title: Management of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: prognostic indicators.
abstract: There now exists a number of approaches that can be used to predict likely responses to therapy and disease progression in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. These tools should be used in management decisions. It must be remembered that destroyed, fixed fibrotic lung will not improve and that the computed tomography pattern and extent of the "fibrotic" pattern should be used to determine if the best response to treatment that can be expected is a prevention of deterioration rather than improvement.
authors.affiliation: Dept of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Royal Brompton Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: du Bois
mesh_terms: D004112:Dimercaprol; D005710:Gallium Radioisotopes; D006801:Humans; D011379:Prognosis; D011658:Pulmonary Fibrosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D016284:Technetium Tc 99m Pentetate; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
chemical_list: D005710:Gallium Radioisotopes; D004112:Dimercaprol; D016284:Technetium Tc 99m Pentetate