Interstitial lung disease (ILD), or pneumonitis, is a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized pathologically by expansion of the interstitial compartment of the lung by inflammatory cells. Fibrosis occurs in many cases (Visscher and Myers, 2006). See also interstitial lung disease-1 (ILD1; 619611). Desquamative interstitial pneumonitis (DIP) was originally described as a pathologic entity by Liebow et al. (1965). Lung biopsy shows diffuse and uniform filling of alveoli by clusters of cells which Liebow et al. (1965) speculated to be 'desquamated pneumocytes.' Since then, these cells have been shown primarily to be pigmented alveolar macrophages. Other features include thickened alveolar septa with an infiltrate of inflammatory cells and plump, cuboidal type II pneumocytes. Mild collagen deposition without architectural distortion or honeycombing may be present. Different forms of ILD represent pathologic classifications based on histologic patterns rather than clinical diagnoses and may occur in a variety of clinical contexts (Visscher and Myers, 2006). Although DIP occurs most often as a sporadic disorder in adults during the third to fifth decade of life and is highly associated with smoking (Carrington et al., 1978), reports of a familial form with onset in infancy and early death suggest a genetic basis (Sharief et al., 1994). Cases of DIP reported in infants are often more severe and refractory to treatment than those reported in adults (Nogee et al., 2001). [from OMIM]

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