The development in the diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis(IPF) is the most common form of idiopathic interstitial pneumonia,characterized by a histological pattern of usual interstitial pneumonia.Typical symptoms of IPF include unexplained shortness of breath and irritating cough.How to diagnose of this disease has made significant development in recent years.A number of studies found that those patients who has typical clinical manifestations and high-resolution chest CT(HRCT) characteristic feature combined with serum markers,pulmonary function and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid testing is useful to conduce to the exact diagnosis of IPF even without the pathological evidence.This review is about the newest diagnosis of IPF from the above aspects.