A: What Is Pulmonary Fibrosis?

Want to find out more about pulmonary fibrosis? In this short explainer video, our Medical Director, Professor Porter, answers some of the most common questions about pulmonary fibrosis, including what it is, what causes it and which conditions may increase the risk.

 

🎥 Watch the Video: What Is Pulmonary Fibrosis?

 

 

Professor Porter discusses the following:

• What is pulmonary fibrosis?
• What part of the lung does pulmonary fibrosis affect?
• What causes pulmonary fibrosis?
• Can smoking cause pulmonary fibrosis?
• How many types of pulmonary fibrosis are there?
• Does rheumatoid arthritis or systemic sclerosis lead to pulmonary fibrosis?

 

Full Video Transcript

Pulmonary fibrosis is a group of diseases, around 200 different diseases that all affect the lung, in particular, the part of the lung where oxygen transfer happens. So, lungs become scarred, patients become more short of breath, and ultimately it results in respiratory failure and, in some cases, death.

There are many different causes, but about a third of the cases we see are caused by an underlying autoimmune rheumatic disease; about a third of cases are caused by pollutants, which include smoking; and about a third of cases we never get to the bottom of. These are the true idiopathic cases.

 

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[Video published December 2025]