Report on the incidence of interstitial lung diseases in Spain.
OBJECTIVE
Almost no epidemiological data are available on a worldwide basis on the prevalence, incidence or relative frequency of interstitial lung diseases (ILD). We report the results of a registration of ILD by 23 centers of pulmonary medicine in Spain over one year (from October 2000 to September 2001).


METHODS
A standardized questionnaire was sent to the centers, together with guidelines for classification and diagnostic evaluation. This questionnaire included questions about the explorations performed to establish the diagnosis.


RESULTS
A total of 511 cases were registered. The mean age of the patients was 61 +/- 0.7 (x +/- SEM) yrs. The male to female ratio was 1.2:1. The estimated incidence of ILD was 7.6 per 100,000/year. The most frequent disease was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (38.6%), followed in decreasing order by sarcoidosis (14.9%), cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (10.4%), ILD associated with collagen vascular diseases (9.9%) and hypersensitivity pneumonitis (6.6%). In 5.1% of cases ILD was unclassified. HRCT scan was performed in 91.9% of cases, bronchoalveolar lavage in 67.9%, transbronchial lung biopsy in 59.9%, and surgical lung biopsy in 22.7%.


CONCLUSIONS
This registration provides interesting information on the occurrence of ILD in Spain and on the procedures used to establish the diagnosis.
Xaubet
Antoni
A
Servei de Pneumologia, ICPCT, Hospital Clinic, IDIBAPS, Barcelona. axaubet@clinic.ub.es
Ancochea
Julio
J
Morell
Ferran
F
Rodriguez-Arias
José Manuel
JM
Villena
Victoria
V
Blanquer
Rafael
R
Montero
Carmen
C
Sueiro
Antonio
A
Disdier
Carlos
C
Vendrell
Montserrat
M
D000368:Aged; D016021:Epidemiologic Studies; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D017563:Lung Diseases, Interstitial / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology