IPF?

[Kat24]

I have a question about IPF.  My Mom was diagnoised with this last week after one Doctors visit!

She is 89 and in pretty good shape for her age.  She goes to her primary doctor every month for B12 shot.  Last week her pulse oximeter reading was 86%. He sent her to have her blood gases drawn and they were 55%.  That night home oxygen was deliverd and she is on oxygen 24/7.  She does get chest xrays done every so often because of CHF, but she really does not have much of a problem with that. Meds seem to do well.

She went to a lung specialist the other day and that was his diagnosis.  He said he was not going to put her thru a lung biopsy or some other test that begins with a "B" (you may know what this is). All he said was to continue oxygen 24/7.  She has no other symptoms of this disease, just arrived at this because of her low oxygen level.  Does this sound right to anyone ?

Also she recently had an echocardiogram and a chemical stress test done by her cardiologist and they came out good.

Thanks for any info.

Kat24

[National Jewish]

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is swelling that leads to scarring of the lungs in the area between the air sacs and the blood vessels.  The amount of information required to make the diagnosis of IPF can range from a simple to a more extensive evaluation.  The simple evaluation includes a history and examine combined with a chest x-ray.  The more extensive evaluation could include CT scans, exercise tests, extensive lab tests, bronchoscopies and surgical lung biopsies.  The amount of evaluation required to make the diagnosis will be dictated by how confident the diagnosis needs to be and how much discomfort and risk the person is willing to undergo.

There is no treatment that has been proved to universally improve the quality of life or lengthen the survival of people with IPF.  Steroids like prednisone are frequently the first medicine used.  As soon as possible the steroid dose is decreased to avoid side effects.  Many side effects are possible from steroids.  Please read our Corticosteroid MedFact at http://www.nationaljewish.org/medfacts/corticosteroid.html for further information about the side effects.  So doctors are often appropriately hesitant to treat IPF in older people with medicines known to have both unpleasant and potentially serious side effects.  Simple measures known to have benefits, such as the use of oxygen, with low risks of side effects are used in almost all people when it is needed.  Please read our Interstitial Lung Disease MedFact at http://www.nationaljewish.org/medfacts/interstitial.html for further information.