The finding supports a diagnosis of asbestosis for which the surviving family could receive workers' compensation. This illustrates the point that many diseases can produce similar lung pathology and correlation of history, radiology and lab findings is needed to come up with the final answer. Patients tend to do better than those with UIP and response to steroids is often good. This is presented as a prototypic ILD of known etiology. It is an important diagnosis not to miss as reducing exposure to the the inciting agent is important in treatment.
Interstitial fibrosis is mild and there is no honey comb change.
BOOP is a tissue injury pattern seen in a number of lung diseases in which patchy plugs of loose fibrous tissue fill bronchioles, alveolar ducts and alveoli. This is a relatively common systemic granulomatous disease which most commonly involves the lungs and mediastinal lymph nodes. It may be an incidental chest x-ray finding or present with symptoms related to any of the multiple systems which can be involved.