Recent years have seen renewed interest in diffuse parenchymal lung diseases (DPLDs), which were formerly referred to as interstitial lung diseases (ILDs). This is reflected in the publication of many important and groundbreaking papers in this field. Knowledge, and easy access to it, is the key to understanding pulmonary fibrosis. Providing reviews of the published medical literature of the past year, Advances in Pulmonary Fibrosis summarizes some of the most important new developments in the field.

The book has been carefully designed so that key messages can be extracted by reading only the Background and Interpretations sections of each chapter. Providing more detailed information, the Comment sections generally start with an outline of the methods used, followed by a more detailed description of results, then an overview of strengths and potential limitations of each study, and end with a short conclusion.

The papers chosen reflect significant contributions to the field and the discussion of methodological limitations gives you a feel for how broadly the results can be generalized to other clinical settings. In addition, the book presents a review of one hundred related papers from the same period, giving you a wider view of the literature. This enables the pulmonologist or other respiratory physician to quickly become up to date on the latest developments in a complex and fascinating field.