Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis is a devastating disease that affects older adults and for which there is no cure. Average life expectancy is around 4-7 years from diagnosis. However, outcomes are very heterogenous with some patients progressing very rapidly and others being stable for many years. It is very difficult to predict outcome for individuals and makes it hard for them to plan.
Breathing Matters funded Dr Theresia Mikolasch as a clinical fellow to see if there was a way to identify patients with IPF that were likely to decline more quickly so that they could be referred in a speedy fashion. This is particularly important in resource poor settings or during pandemics.
We have shown that a simple widely available blood test, the full blood count, can determine, at diagnosis, whether patients are likely to be at low or high risk of deterioration, even in the absence of specialised tests such as lung function. This will help prioritise those patients that need to be seen urgently. This is a potential gamechanger in assessing patients with new diagnosis of IPF.
The study was performed at UCLH and the results were validated in a combined cohort of nearly 1000 patients with IPF from other centres around England.
This work has been published in a Lancet publication; you can read the full article here.
[Posted 2.12.22]