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Pulmonary Fibrosis

Staging

05/23/2009

Question:

my dad has copd pulmonary fibrosis he is 71 years old what stages are there with this lung disease

Answer:

COPD is generally staged using the GOLD criteria that divides patients into 4 stages based on lung function tests. The specific test that is used is called the FEV1. Pulmonary fibrosis does not have a specific staging system but is often split into early stage and late stage based on lung function tests. When patients have both COPD and pulmonary fibrosis, it can be very difficult to determine the stage since both conditions can affect the lung function tests in different ways. In this situation, we often use the blood oxygen level (or oxygen saturation test) as well as the distance that a person can walk in 6 minutes to judge the overall severity of the lung diseases.

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Response by:

James N Allen, Jr, MD James N Allen, Jr, MD
Clinical Professor of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine
College of Medicine
The Ohio State University