Anatomic pathology selected abstracts
June 2025—Transbronchial cryobiopsies are increasingly used to diagnose interstitial lung disease, but published information on the features of specific manifestations of ILD in cryobiopsies is lacking. Therefore, the authors sought to provide pathologic guidelines for separating usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), fibrotic hypersensitivity pneumonitis (FHP), and connective tissue disease-associated interstitial lung disease (CTD-ILD) in cryobiopsies. They examined 120 cryobiopsies from patients with CTD-ILD established via multidisciplinary discussion and compared them with a prior series of 121 biopsies from patients with IPF or FHP also established via multidisciplinary discussion. A nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP) pattern alone was seen in 36 of 120 (30 percent) CTD-ILD, three of 83 (3.6 percent) FHP, and two of 38 (5.2 percent) IPF cases, statistically favoring a diagnosis of CTD-ILD.