Apr 08 2024 9 mins
In this episode - fibrotic non-specific interstitial pneumonia (or NSIP) - what does this diagnosis mean and how is it treated?
You can also watch this on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/YnBi1WBzy68
NSIP is a pattern that we can see on a chest CT scan or on a lung biopsy (on the pathology report). What does this mean for you as a patient or someone who cares for someone who has NSIP?
NSIP may be associated with inflammatory conditions affecting the body (i.e. connective tissue diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis or others) or may occur without a known cause (and we call this situation idiopathic NSIP). We call NSIP fibrotic if there is lung scarring. If there is no fibrosis, sometime this may be referred to as just NSIP or "cellular" NSIP.
Treating NSIP is generally with anti-inflammatory medication as a first line, normally corticosteroids such as prednisolone. Sometimes this may not be enough, or we would want to use a lower dose of prednisolone, so we can introduce immunosuppressants, such as mycophenolate, as a second line. If despite these therapies, the NSIP fibrosis is still getting worse (progressive pulmonary fibrosis), antifibrotic treatments such as nintedanib may be added, in order to stabilize the condition as much as we can.
Obviously, the more treatments we add, the more careful we need to be about side effects. Routine blood monitoring is usually done with your healthcare team, and regular follow-up is essential.
Hope this info helps, although it's unlikely this one video will cover all the nuances in your case. Always check everything with your own healthcare team.
#NSIP #fibrotic #pulmonaryfibrosis