Does pulmonary fibrosis constitute COPD?
I have pulmonary fibrosis and I can tell you that pulmonary fibrosis is not a side effect of COPD. It is a specific disease that kills over 50,000 people in the US alone every year. It is a restrictive disorder, not an obstructive disorder. The exact mechanism of the disease is unknown. In more than 50% of the cases, an actual cause is never determined, so it is referred to as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The disease usually begins with inflammation to the lung caused by some sort of lung injury (exposure to toxic gases, pneumonia, actual lung injury such as bruising) that later turns healthy lung tissue into scar tissue. The disease is often misdiagnosed and the number of people who actually die from it may be much higher. The only definitive way to diagnose the disease is through biopsy. There is no cure for pulmonary fibrosis and the average life span of most people after diagnosis is less than 5 years. It kills 100% of the people who get it. For more information, please go to one
