What are the CT manifestations of pulmonary fibrosis?

Pulmonary interstitial fibrosis is a disease that all patients cannot ignore, and once similar symptoms are found, it is necessary to go to the hospital for a more comprehensive examination, because the onset of this disease is relatively hidden and sometimes difficult to detect, but if it is discovered later, it may develop into a terminal illness.

1. Interstitial pneumonia (IIP) is also known as pulmonary fibrosis (IPE) and fibrosing alveolitis (CFA). This disease may have other names at home and abroad, but these names are all a series of diseases with the same nature, except that there are some differences in the anatomical location of the lung tissue during the progression of the disease. This disease is a chronic interstitial lung disease whose cause has not yet been identified. In a small number of patients, the onset of the disease may be related to infection by viruses and other microorganisms, inhalation of organic dust, and stimulation by harmful gases. The pathological damage of interstitial pneumonia is mainly inflammation of the alveolar wall in the early stage of the disease, diffuse pulmonary interstitial fibrosis in the middle stage, and alveolar wall fibrosis in the late stage. X-ray lung examination, especially high-resolution CT (HRCT) examination, can reveal dense and small reticular nodules in the lung fields on both sides, especially in the lower lung fields. These nodules are relatively uniform and have unclear boundaries, or there are cord-like lesions, lattice shadows, and honeycomb lungs. Ground-glass changes are not obvious, and those with simple ground-glass changes are easy to recover. Pathological examination of bronchoscopic biopsy (TBLB) showed alveolar atrophy and pulmonary interstitial fibrosis.

2. The biggest characteristics of interstitial pneumonia are: insidious onset, progressive worsening, and eventual leading to lung and heart failure. This disease has become a "terminal illness" that is unpreventable, difficult to detect early, difficult to treat, and causes progressive damage.

3. We now divide interstitial pneumonia and pulmonary fibrosis diseases into four major types clinically, divide the lesions detected by ordinary CT into five types, and divide the lesions detected by high-resolution CT (HRCT) into five types. Furthermore, we closely combined the clinical manifestations of patients of each type in different stages of the disease with the CT examination results at the time, so as to determine the severity of each patient's condition. We then developed a more correct treatment plan and therapeutic drugs with better efficacy, and were able to control the disease in a relatively timely manner and relieve the symptoms of wheezing and coughing, thereby inhibiting the development of the lesions so that they no longer progressively worsen. We then gradually "nourished yin and transformed fiber", and performed different respiratory exercises such as internal and external breathing, cardiopulmonary breathing, etc., to reduce the number of fibrosis lesions.