Pulmonary Fibrosis

My mom went in the hospital with difficulty breathing Oct 8th 2007.  She was not on oxygen at that time and was performing daily functions with some strain but continued to perform.  The pulmonologist performed chest CT's, pulmonary function tests, and had her on broad-sepctrum antibiotics.  The specialist told us that the only way to diagnosis what was going on was to perform an open lung biopsy.  This was done on th 16th of October.  After that date mom never regained her lung function (even to that previous) and actually passed away from an infection on the 12th of November after having a vent placed and trach.  It was a terrible 18 days.  My question is this...if the tests that are performed previous to open lung biospy point toward the diagnosis of pulmonary fibrosis, is it beneficial to perform this procedure?  The reknowned hospital that we transferred my mom to after the biopsy said they were looking into alternative methods of diagnosing IPF or interstitial lung disease as patients did not recover.  Any thoughts or stories???

[National Jewish Health]

Current non-invasive tests do not allow for a confident diagnosis 50% of the time and this makes biopsy necessary.  Many researchers are looking to alternative methods to diagnose idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), as is "the reknowned hospital", but the current "alternative methods" are not yet reliable enough to make biopsy unnecessary in more than 50% of the cases.

Please accept our deepest sympathy.