B: PF versus IPF

Pulmonary fibrosis can refer to many different conditions, while idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a specific diagnosis with its own features. In this video, we explore the key differences — including why IPF is separate from other types of pulmonary fibrosis, how many causes there really are, and who is most likely to be affected.

 

🎥 Watch the Video: Pulmonary Fibrosis versus IPF?

 

Professor Porter discusses the following:

• What does pulmonary fibrosis actually mean?
• Why does pulmonary fibrosis make the lungs stiff?
• Are there really over 200 causes of pulmonary fibrosis?
• What’s the difference between pulmonary fibrosis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis?
• Why is idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis its own separate diagnosis?
• Does idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis only affect older men?
• Can younger people or women get idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis too?
• Is pulmonary fibrosis an umbrella term?
• What percentage of men/women get pulmonary fibrosis?

 

Full Video Transcript

This is a very important question. Pulmonary fibrosis covers all the different interstitial lung diseases – all 200 of them. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a very specific diagnosis. So patients have to meet very specific diagnostic criteria, which essentially means excluding any of the known causes of pulmonary fibrosis. And what we are left with is a truly unknown cause for the pulmonary fibrosis. And it tends to be a disease, not exclusively, but of older men. So, about 70% of the patients we see with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis are older men, men in their 60s to 70s. However, still 30% are females, but these are often older women as well.

 

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[Video published December 2025]