What is interstitial lung disease?

Also known as: ILD, IPF, cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis, CFA.

Childhood Interstitial lung disease is a broad term that applies to a rare complex group of different conditions in children (mostly infants) that primarily share a common abnormality of the air sacs and the scar like tissue that surrounds them, leading to difficulty in getting oxygen to the tissues and removing the carbon dioxide produced by them during metabolism. In children the microscopic picture of lung tissue in ILD differs from that of the same disease in adults and the diagnosis is not always easy to make as the clinical presentation may not reflect the microscopic picture.

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Reviewed by: Jack Wolfsdorf, MD, FAAP

This page was last updated on: 1/29/2019 3:21:13 PM