Guest guest Posted July 22, 2009 Report Share Posted July 22, 2009 my personal decision is to take the meds to see if they work fortunately they did work for me i tend to avoid surgery Pink Joyce R (IPF 3/06) IFA 5/09 Pennsylvania Donate Life Listed 1/09 Inactive 4/09 www.transplantfund.org--- Subject: Surgical Lung BiopsyTo: "Breath Support" <Breathe-Support >Date: Wednesday, July 22, 2009, 10:31 AM Is the surgical lung biopsy the only means of determining what my ILD is? After hearing from all of you yesterday and from the studies I've read on this site, and my genetic factor (brother w/ IPF), it sounds like I need to have the surgical lung biopsy performed to determine exactly what my disease is? I feel like my PS doctor just threw all these medicines at me and said take these and we'll see what works...like I'm a guinea pig?C_IPF_5/09 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 22, 2009 Report Share Posted July 22, 2009 The first thing I can say based on what you feel like is get to a University ILD Center such as one of the Centers of Excellence. They can further evaluate you and make recommendations as to the benefit or need for a biopsy and the meds you're on. As to the biopsy, yes. Ultimately it is the only way in most cases to determine the form of ILD. Now some may appear so obvious from the CT's but that would generally be in very advanced state. Also tests for connective tissue diseases may give a good idea of the form or the cause in some cases. As a general rule and some are more easily diagnosed while some more difficult, doctors are considered about 60% accurate in determining the form of ILD from an HRCT and over 95% accurate from a biopsy. Note, they can still be wrong from a biopsy-it isn't 100%. Thats a reason to have the biopsy slides reviewed by more than one ILD experienced pathologist. > > Is the surgical lung biopsy the only means of determining what my ILD is? > After hearing from all of you yesterday and from the studies I've read on this site, and my genetic factor (brother w/ IPF), it sounds like I need to have the surgical lung biopsy performed to determine exactly what my disease is? > > I feel like my PS doctor just threw all these medicines at me and said take these and we'll see what works...like I'm a guinea pig? > > > C_IPF_5/09 > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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