A New Tool to Assess Quality of Life in Patients with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis or Non-specific Interstitial Pneumonia.

Background:  Quality of life (QoL) is significantly impaired in patients with pulmonary fibrosis, however reliable tools to assess QoL issues specific for this group of patients are still missing. We thus aimed to develop a new questionnaire called "Quality of life in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis" (QPF) to measure QoL in patients with fibrotic idiopathic interstitial pneumonias (IIP).

Methods:  An item pool was created on the basis of a German expert group with support of patients suffering from pulmonary fibrosis.

[Linguistic Validation of the "German Lung Fibrosis Health Related Quality of Life Questionnaire"].

Unlabelled: Health status and quality of life are impaired in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and idiopathic non-specific interstitial fibrosis (iNSIP). In Germany exists only the K-BILD questionnaire for patients with ILD 1 in a professional translation by Kreuter et al. 2 This questionnaire focuses on the main problems in patients with progressive lung fibrosis in a limited manner.

A Comparison of Existing Questionnaires for Identifying the Causes of Interstitial and Rare Lung Diseases.

Background: A thorough diagnostic process is essential with regard to prognosis and treatment of the more than 200 different types of interstitial lung diseases (ILD). Key to this complex process is a comprehensive medical history. For this, a template is recommended and questionnaires are increasingly used.

[DGP Interstitial Lung Disease Patient Questionnaire].

Background:  Interstitial lung diseases (ILD) encompass different heterogeneous, mainly chronic diseases of the pulmonary interstitium and/or alveoli with known and unknown reasons. The diagnostic of ILD is challenging and should be performed interdisciplinary. The medical history is of major importance and therefore, in German-speaking countries the Frankfurter Bogen (published in 1985) was utilised to scrutinise the medical history of the patient.

Physical Activity and Fatigue in Patients with Sarcoidosis.

Background: Little is known about physical activity in daily life among patients with sarcoidosis. Fatigue is a frequent and disabling symptom that might negatively affect physical activity levels.

Methods: In patients with sarcoidosis, we measured physical activity (steps per day) by accelerometry (SenseWear Armband) for 1 week.