Medical Sciences Commons^™

Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, Stacey Rosselot

Nursing Student Class Projects (Formerly MSN)

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive, irreversible lung disease, characterized by chronic inflammation and fibroproliferation of the parenchymal cells of the lung that lead to chronic respiratory failure and ultimately death (Kotsianidis et al., 2009). IPF is more prevalent in men than in women and risk for disease increases after age 60. IPF is the most common form of idiopathic interstitial pneumonia and it affects over 100,000 persons in the United States alone (Ding et al., 2011). Most of IPF cases are considered to be unpredictable and sporadic in nature, however approximately 15-20% of cases have a family history …