Histological Patterns of Resected Lung after Lung Transplant in Patients with Interstitial Lung Diseases

Introduction: Interstitial lung diseases (ILD) are a heterogeneous group with specific features and one of the main causes of lung transplant (LT). Lung biopsy is often pursued in the evaluation of ILD and presents diagnostic challenges to both the clinician and pathologist. Aims and objectives: To review the histopathological findings of resected lungs in patients with ILD submitted to LT at our Centre. Methods: Retrospective study of consecutive patients with ILD submitted to LT between January/2008 and December/2017. Results: We evaluated 82 patients, 57,3% men, with mean age (SD) of 50,8 (9,4) years. The mean time (SD) of disease progression was 7,0 (5,1) years. The diagnosis at the time of referral and histopathological findings after LT are summarized in table 1. Forty-two (51,2%) patients had previous surgical or transthoracic biopsy, 20 of them with previous non-UIP histologic pattern had histopathological findings of resected lung consistent with UIP only. Conclusions: In the majority of resected lungs the histological pattern was consistent with UIP, although only one third of patients had previous diagnosis of IPF, suggesting that a fibrotic evolution occurred in the period between diagnosis and LT in non-IPF patients.