title: Interstitial lung disease.
abstract: Interstitial lung diseases are a group of diffuse parenchymal lung disorders associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. Knowledge achieved in recent years has resulted in the publication of the new classification of idiopathic interstitial pneumonias, according to which there are three groups: major, rare and unclassified. The novelty of the new classification comes from the fact that difficult to classify entities can be treated according to the disease behaviour classification. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is the most lethal amongst the interstitial lung diseases and presents high heterogeneity in clinical behaviour. A number of biomarkers have been proposed in order to predict the course of the disease and group patients with the same characteristics in clinical trials. Early diagnosis and disease stratification is also important in the field of other interstitial lung diseases.
authors.affiliation: Dept of Thoracic Medicine and Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Pneumonology, Medical School, University of Crete, Crete, Greece. 2 Pulmonary Unit, GB Morgagni Hospital, Forlì, Italy. 3 Dept of Pneumology and Allergy, Ruhrlandklinik, University Hospital, University of Duisburg Essen, Essen, Germany.
authors.forename: Katerina M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Antoniou
authors.forename: George A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Margaritopoulos
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tomassetti
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bonella
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Costabel
authors.forename: Venerino
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Poletti
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D017563:Lung Diseases, Interstitial / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors