THE EFFECT OF DIFFERENT TREATMENT REGIMENS AMONG PATIENTS WITH INTERSTITIAL LUNG DISEASES OF UNKNOWN ETIOLOGY

Interstitial Lung Diseases (ILD) are a collection of parenchymal lung disorders classified together for its similar clinical, radiographic and pathological manifestations. It is characterized by scarring and fibrosis of the lung interstitium. Several biomarkers including clinical and radiological biomarkers have been proposed to predict the stage and progress of the disease. In Saudi Arabia, there are no studies yet that has discussed the best treatment approach to those patients. For that, our research had focused about gathering informationabout the use of steroids, and whereas it had an effect on the disease progression.Furthermore, this study measured the outcome of the use of an immunosuppressive medications to control the disease. The study is a retrospective cohort study that was done in National Guard Hospital in Jeddah during the period from 2017 to 2019 for patients admitted with ILDs of unknown etiology during the period 2012 to 2016 who are Adults ( 18 years or older ) excluding those who have other chronic lung disease, heart failure, or known triggers to the disease. The data of the patients was collected by looking at their medical records (hardcopy). A data extraction sheet was used that included baseline demographics and disease characteristics, used medications, outcome parameters ( PFT, CT Chest, Subjective Clinical Improvements ) for data interpretation. And Data was analyzed using the software STATA. Results show the use of systemic steroids alone showed clinical improvement in 17% of steroid users and 8% improvement in chest CT. And the addition of immunosuppressive medications showed 33% clinical improvement and 17% chest CT improvement in comparison to those who were not treated with immunosuppressive medications. Concluding that the results were non significant with poor outcome and little improvement.