Reply to Kalverda et al. : Endobronchial Optical Coherence Tomography: Shining New Light on Diagnosing Usual Interstitial Pneumonitis?

• Published in: American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine Vol. 205; no. 8; pp. 968 - 971
• Main Authors: Nandy, Sreyankar, Raphaely, Rebecca A, Muniappan, Ashok, Shih, Angela, Roop, Benjamin W, Sharma, Amita, Keyes, Colleen M, Colby, Thomas V, Auchincloss, Hugh G, Gaissert, Henning A, Lanuti, Michael, Morse, Christopher R, Ott, Harald C, Wain, John C, Wright, Cameron D, Garcia-Moliner, Maria L, Smith, Maxwell L, VanderLaan, Paul A, Berigei, Sarita R, Mino-Kenudson, Mari, Horick, Nora K, Liang, Lloyd L, Davies, Diane L, Szabari, Margit V, Caravan, Peter, Medoff, Benjamin D, Tager, Andrew M, Suter, Melissa J, Hariri, Lida P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Thoracic Society 15.04.2022
• Subjects: Correspondence; Humans; Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis; Lung; Lung diseases; Medical diagnosis; Pulmonary fibrosis; Radiology; Tomography; Tomography, Optical Coherence
• ISSN: 1073-449X; 1535-4970
• DOI: 10.1164/rccm.202112-2737LE

Nandy et al respond to comments from Kalverda and colleagues on their article on endobronchial optical coherence tomography. They state that their primary objective was to conduct a blinded, prospective study to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of endobronchial optical coherence tomography (EB-OCT) for microscopic diagnosis of interstitial lung disease (ILD) compared with concurrent surgical lung biopsy (SLB) and clinical follow-up diagnosis. Their inclusion criteria were 1) age>21 years; 2) fibrotic ILD on the basis of high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) with unclear diagnosis; 3) SLB required for ILD diagnosis on the basis of the clinical decision of the treating pulmonologist, and 4) ability to give informed consent. Therefore, in their patient cohort, there was no high-confidence clinical-radiologic diagnosis before SLB. Their institution does not routinely use BAL as part of the ILD diagnostic workup, which is consistent with the practice of many academic ILD centers in the US.