RESULTS
The mean age of the patients
was 54.4 ± 9.2. The majority of the patients were women (94.3%).
Dyspnea (28.6 %), effort dyspnea (22.9 %) and dry cough (17.1 %) were
the most common clinical complaints of patients at the time of
admission.
Median diagnosis time was 74 months. When the medical treatments of the
patients were examined, Hydroxychloroquine (88.6%) and Corticosteroid
(68.6%) were the most common. Most of the patients (79%) using steroid
were using prednisolone less than 10 mg or its equivalent. When the
comorbid lung diseases were investigated, 5 patients had asthma and 4
patients had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (11.4%). The
general characteristics of the patients are shown in Table 1.
When the HRCT findings were evaluated, 28 (80%) patients had CT
findings, while 7 (20%) patients had no CT findings. Distribution of CT
findings; Peribronchial thickening in 17 (48.6%) patients, ground glass
in 10 (28.6%) patients, prominence in interstitial scars in 8 (22.9%)
patients, bronchiectasis in 7 (20%) patients, reticular appearance in 6
(17.1%) patients, 5 (14.3%) reticulonodular infiltration in the
patient, consolidation in 4 (11.4%) patients, solitary nodule in 2
(5.7%), mosaic perfusion in 2 (5.7%), honeycomb appearance in 2
(5.7%) patients, parenchymal band appearance in 1 (2.9%) patient.
No significant difference was found when the data of PFT were evaluated
in patients with and without CT findings. Although DLCO values were not
statistically significant, lower values were found in patients with CT
findings (Table 2).
No statistically significant difference was observed between patients
with and without CT findings when we grouped the PFT data as normal,
obstructive, restrictive and small airway obstruction (p = 0.471, Table
3).
The relationship between the patients’ age and duration of illness with
PFT parameters is shown in Table 4. According to this no statistically
significant difference was found between the duration of illness and PFT
results. On the other hand, the disparity between age and FEV1 (p
<0.001), FEV1% (p = 0.011), FVC (p <0.001), FEV1 /
FVC (p = 0.005) and FEF25-75 (p = 0.046) was statistically significant.
In elderly patients at 6MWT, the walking distance was statistically
significantly shorter (p = 0.029).
When the CT outcomes were analyzed by dividing the duration of the
disease into the first 3 years and after; no significant difference was
found (Table 5).