Revisione critica delle Linee Guida ATS/ERS sulla fibrosi polmonare idiopatica (IPF)

In 2011 were published the ATS/ERS guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of IPF (idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis). Research in the field of interstitial lung diseases and in particular IPF is so active that already have accumulated new evidence in the light of which we find it useful and interesting to re-evaluate critically the recent recommendations. In the first part of this review are summarized the main points of the official document and in the second part is articulated a comment, hopefully useful and constructive, of some more specific aspects. The current guidelines are intended to give a strictly scientific answer based on clinical facts about questions concerning diagnosis, follow-up and treatment of IPF. One limit of this approach, is that we have sometimes the impression of being in front of a synthesis of "multiple bits of low-evidence" in a statement which could seem not always useful for the clinician, who must take every day important decisions. Moreover recent studies shed a new light non invasive diagnosis of IPF and on the new therapeutic scenario that is now better delineated than two years ago.