Patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) are three times as likely to experience severe coronary events—including heart attacks—than people without the disease, according to a recent study that analyzed the risk of cardiovascular disease in nearly 1,000 patients with IPF and more than 3,500 matched controls.

Patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) may have a new treatment option, according to researchers in Japan.

The first evidence of a distinctive protein signature that could help to transform the diagnosis and improve the monitoring of the devastating lung disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is being reported by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers in this month’s edition of PLoS Medicine, an open-access journal of the Public Library of Science.

Systemic sclerosis (SSc), also known as scleroderma, is characterized by the formation of fibrosis, or scar tissue, on internal organs as well as the skin. Beyond its disfiguring symptoms, SSc is associated with a high rate of deadly lung disease. Pulmonary fibrosis strikes at least one-third of SSc sufferers, and kills 30 percent within 10 years.

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), often known as acid reflux, is a common problem that has been associated with cancers, asthma, recurrent aspiration and pulmonary fibrosis.

Mortality rates from pulmonary fibrosis (PF) have increased significantly in recent years, and are predicted to continue to rise, according to researchers from the University of Colorado.