View clinical trials related to Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.
Filter by:There is a rare condition causing scarring of the lungs termed interstitial lung disease. This comprises a group of conditions which can be divided into separate diseases. The aim of this study is compare a group of patients (the cases) with 2 types of this disease (fibrotic non-specific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF)) with patients without the disease. The study will look at the 2 groups and their exposures to factors such as medications, smoking, previous jobs, previous medical problems and specifically heart disease and any operations or procedures involving the heart. There have been previous studies showing a link between heart disease and scarring of the lungs. This study will look at whether this association is stronger in one or the other type of lung scarring diseases.
Over time, patients with fibrosing or interstitial lung disease (ILD) can develop high lung blood pressures (pulmonary hypertension), and this is associated with poorer prognosis and survival. It is thought that development of PH contributes to the deterioration and death of patients with ILD. Endothelin-1 (ET1) is a substance contributing to the development of both PH and ILD. Bosentan is a drug blocking the action of ET-1 by binding to its receptors. Bosentan clearly benefits patients with PH of unknown cause, or related to other diseases (such as heart conditions, or HIV) both alone and in combination with other treatments. In patients with fibrosing lung disease and PH, there have been no controlled treatment studies. Clearly it is important to evaluate the effectiveness of bosentan in these patients. This study aims to determine the ability of bosentan to reduce high blood pressure in the lungs (pulmonary hypertension) in patients with scarring (fibrosing) lung disease. It is a placebo-controlled double blinded study for 16 weeks (and it is proposed to follow patients in a 16 week open-label phase with bosentan therapy).