The past year has been particularly challenging for my husband, Donnie, as he navigates persistent muscle soreness and fatigue, along with his regular pulmonary fibrosis symptoms. Because autoimmune disorders ultimately caused Donnie’s pulmonary fibrosis (doctors suspect polymyositis, Sjögren’s disease, and scleroderma), it’s been difficult for him to discern if…
Checking 1 gene’s activity may aid in sleep apnea detection in IPF
AP02, an inhaled form of nintedanib being developed by Avalyn Pharma for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), was generally well tolerated and resulted in higher lung levels of the drug than oral nintedanib, according to findings from two Phase 1 trials. An oral formulation of nintedanib, sold as Ofev,…
As my regular readers may remember, I am prescribed supplemental oxygen therapy. Pulmonary fibrosis makes it difficult to catch my breath during exertion. Long-distance walking has become difficult, going to the gym can be a challenge, and there are even days when it is simply hard to breathe. When…
Raising awareness can take many forms, including education. September’s Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Month (PFAM) is an opportunity to educate not only the pulmonary fibrosis (PF) and interstitial lung disease (ILD) communities, but also the general public about the condition. When I was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis…
An experimental oral treatment called taladegib helped expand lung volume and reduce scarring in people with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), according to a new imaging analysis from a clinical trial. Data from the Phase 2a trial (NCT04968574), generated using artificial intelligence (AI) to evaluate high-resolution chest scans, were…
Note: This column was updated Sept. 18, 2026, to correct that ILDs are restrictive diseases, while chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma are obstructive diseases. Because idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a diagnosis of exclusion, it’s easy to forget about all of the other related diseases that make up…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will decide by early next year whether or not to expand its approval of nebulized Tyvaso (treprostinil) — an inhaled treatment for people with certain lung diseases — to allow its use in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a respiratory condition marked…
What do the following terms have in common: usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP), ground-glass opacity (GGO), fibrosis, and lung crackles, or rales? These terms, often associated with pulmonary fibrosis (PF), can be early indicators of the disease. When I was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary…
September is Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Month, and advocates around the globe are joining together to shine a light on what it means to live with pulmonary fibrosis (PF), a condition characterized by lung scarring and marked by breathing problems. “It is a lonely feeling to have a chronic disease…
