During the meeting, doctors could learn about interstitial lung diseases. This group comprises over 200 disease entities, the most common of which are sarcoidosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and other interstitial lung diseases secondary to exposure to known agents or accompanying systemic connective tissue diseases. Common symptoms for most of these diseases are suffocation and cough, which are not very specific and often underestimated by doctors or patients themselves. Their diagnosis requires specialist knowledge and equipment and is therefore usually carried out in specialised centres. However, there is an urgent need to sensitise physicians of different specialties (pulmonologists, family doctors, internists, rheumatologists, radiologists) to the problem of late detection of interstitial lung diseases. Interpretation of CT images with an understanding of the mechanisms leading to fibrosis, among other things, is crucial. At the same time, the increasing number of lung imaging studies performed in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to increased detection of interstitial abnormalities, and the role of physicians will be to refer to specialists those patients who will require expanded diagnostics.
Participants in the course had the opportunity to hear up-to-date information on the diagnosis of interstitial diseases, evaluate cases together with a radiologist at their individual working stations, and discuss challenging clinical cases in a multi-specialist team. There was no lack of multimedia tools to make the course more attractive. The knowledge transfer is intended to help doctors diagnose this type of disease, especially if it progresses with progressive fibrosis.
The course director is dr hab. Katarzyna Górska, pulmonologist, and the co-leaders are dr hab. Piotr Korczyński, pulmonologist, and dr J. Żuchowska, radiologist.
The next edition of the course: 11/12/2021
