Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in BRIC countries: the cases of Brazil, Russia, India, and China

Abstract

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), the prototype of interstitial lung diseases, has the worst prognosis and is the only interstitial lung disease for which approved pharmacological treatments are available. Despite being considered a rare disease, IPF patients pose major challenges to both physicians and healthcare systems. It is estimated that a large number of IPF patients reside in BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) given their overall total population of approximately 3 billion inhabitants. Nevertheless, the limited availability of chest imaging in BRIC countries is considered a chief obstacle to diagnosis, since high-resolution computed tomography of the chest is the key diagnostic test for IPF. Further, obtaining reliable lung function tests and providing treatment access is difficult in the more rural areas of these countries. However, IPF might represent an opportunity for BRIC countries: the exponentially increasing demand for the enrollment of IPF patients in clinical trials of new drugs is predicted to face a shortage of patients – BRIC countries may thus play a crucial role in advancing towards a cure for IPF.

FOXP3polymorphisms in interstitial lung disease among Chinese Han population: A genetic association study

“…5 A retrospective study in China revealed an increase in the number of ILD patients from 1.98% to 4.66% of all Chinese patients hospitalized for respiratory diseases between 1990 and 2003. 6 A similar trend was reported by another Chinese study which showed an increase in hospitalized ILD patients from 4.5% to 39.5% of all hospitalizations under the Department of Respiratory Diseases in 2003 and 2009, respectively. 7 This illustrates a gradual upward trend in the incidence of ILD in China over the years.…”

The epidemiology of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and interstitial lung diseases at risk of a progressive-fibrosing phenotype

“…Epidemiological data for IPF can vary widely due to variations in the data collection methods and classification terms used (table 1) [11,12]. Throughout Europe and North America, the estimated incidence of IPF has been reported to range between 2.8 and 19 cases per 100 000 people per year [23][24][25]. An analysis of national admissions data in Canada reported a higher rate of IPF than other national estimates, with an incidence rate of 18.7 per 100 000 cases and a broad prevalence of 41.8 per 100 000 cases, but noted that direct comparisons were not possible [26].…”

“…The prevalence of IPF increases with age, with the majority of patients aged >50 years at diagnosis and a higher proportion of males than females [6,25,26,28,29]. A regional observational study of ILD diagnoses performed by DUCHEMANN et al between January and December 2012 in Seine-Saint-Denis, a multi-ethnic county of Greater Paris in France, reported a prevalence rate for IPF of 8.2 per 100 000 [24].…”

Interstitial Lung Diseases in Developing Countries

“…Thus, it is likely that the burden of disease will be concentrated in the most densely populated region of the globe. BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China), with an estimated 2.9 billion inhabitants, may comprise 2 million cases of IPF [98][99][100][101][102].…”