Interstitial

This book demonstrates the recent advances in rapid on-site evaluation (ROSE) for differential diagnosis of interstitial lung disease (ILD). Interstitial lung disease is a group of diffuse parenchymal lung disorders affecting the interstitium, a part of the lung's anatomic structure, causing inflammation, scarring, or excess fluid. ILDs include interstitial pneumonia, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, nonspecific interstitial pneumonitis, cryptogenic organizing pneumonia and sarcoidosis, which are associated with various degrees of morbidity and mortality rates.

This atlas will illustrate the distribution and morphological features of interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) which are the key cells to understanding of the regulatory mechanism of gastrointestinal motility, since ICC act as both pacemaker and as intermediates in neural transmission, and since ICC show specific distribution patterns depending on their anatomical positions. All subtypes of ICC located in the different tissue layers and different levels of the gastrointestinal tract will be revealed by immunohistochemistry for Kit receptors and nerves by using mainly whole-mount stretch preparation of the guinea-pig tissues. Three-dimensional reconstruction of confocal images will particularly help the readers to understand the peculiar arrangement of ICC networks in situ and the correlation between ICC and nerves. Electron micrographs will help illustrate the characteristic features of ICC and their ultrastructural differences from fibroblasts, smooth muscles and other interstitial cells.

This book presents readers with a better understanding of the etiology, development, and treatment of interstitial lung diseases.

The first edition of this book, published in 2009, was the only book of its kind dedicated exclusively to the diagnosis and management of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD). Over the past few years, new diagnostic tests and treatments of pulmonary arterial hypertension have been developed and tested.