Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in the UK: findings from the British Thoracic Society UK Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Registry

Abstract

Objectives: idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive interstitial lung disease (ILD) and the most common idiopathic interstitial pneumonia. The UK IPF Registry was established in 2013 to collect data pertaining to clinical features, therapeutic approaches and outcomes. From February 2023, the Registry expanded to include any ILD with evidence of fibrosis.

Design: the UK IPF Registry is a national, multicentre observational registry, including both prospective and retrospective data of patients with IPF in secondary or tertiary care. Cases eligible for inclusion were those with a diagnosis of IPF, presenting at participating centres from January 2013.

Results: between January 2013 and February 2023, 5052 IPF cases were registered from 64 participating centres. There was a male preponderance (77.8%) with mean±SD age of 74±8.1 years, 66% were ex-smokers and 76% had at least one comorbidity. Over a third (36.7%) experienced symptoms for more than 24 months prior to their first clinic visit. The majority of cases were discussed at a multidisciplinary team (MDT) meeting and the most common radiological patterns at presentation were probable (54.6%) and definite (42.7%) usual interstitial pneumonia. There was a reduction in surgical lung biopsies from 14% in 2013 to 5.5% in 2022. Antifibrotic therapy prescription rose from 36.0% in 2013 to 55.9% in 2023. The use of nintedanib (approved by National Institute of Clinical Excellence in January 2016) rose from 6.7% in 2013 to 31.5% in 2022 and pirfenidone (approved in April 2013) was initially used in around a third of cases before dropping to between 16.8% and 24.9% after nintedanib was approved.

Conclusion: these data reflect clinical practice across the UK and it is intended the data will have a role in informing the future of IPF care and providing a model for benchmarking, ultimately increasing knowledge and improving clinical care for this devastating disease.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Sophie V. Fletcher: orcid.org/0000-0002-5633-905X

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