472 die of ‘pneumonia from unknown causes` from 2003-07

A study has found that 472 people in Korea died of lung interstitium due to unknown causes from 2003 to 2007.

The Korea Academy of Tuberculosis & Respiratory Diseases surveyed 2,186 patients diagnosed with interstitium due to unknown causes at hospitals nationwide from January 2003 to December 2007. The results of the study were published in the academy’s journal in 2009.

When classifying patients with interstitium, or those who suffer from inflammation in interstitial tissue, patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) numbered the most with 1,685 (77.1 percent).

Patients with acute interstitial pneumonitis (AIP), which the lung undergoes fast-paced fibrosis, numbered 24 (1.1 percent). AIP was also recently detected in a patient at a university hospital in Korea.

Notably, the mortality of patients with AIP was as high as 41.7 percent. Ten of the 24 patients died during the time of the survey.

In contrast, nine (37.5 percent) survived over the period of the study but researchers failed to trace the other five. The research team estimated that the three-year survival ratio of AIP patients was 57 percent.

Among the 1,685 patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, 415 (24.6 percent) died, and 682 (40.5 percent) survived. Researchers failed to trace the other 588 (34.9 percent), suggesting that this disease had the second-highest mortality rate.

Pneumonia due to unknown causes occurred among a wide range of age groups ranging from 11 to 94. The average age of the patients was 65. The number of male patients was almost twice that of women. All patients showed symptoms of difficulty breathing (67 percent), coughing (61 percent) and phlegm (32 percent).

Jeong Seong-hwan, professor of respiratory medicine at Gachon University of Medicine & Science in Incheon who participated in the survey, said, “The patient at a university hospital is believed to have suffered AIP. Additional research including on causes and therapies should be conducted after the disease is accurately defined.”