Desquamative interstitial pneumonia.

DIFFUSE or miliary lung diseases are being recognized and labeled with increasing frequency, often with considerable importance in relation to therapy. However, a large group of these disorders still remains unclassified. They are the chronic interstitial pneumonias, which, in the absence of familial history, collagen diseases, inhalation of noxious agents or ingestion of certain drugs, are often referred to as chronic idiopathic interstitial fibrosis or Hamman-Rich disease. Unfortunately, the latter term tends to be applied loosely to chronic fibrosing lung diseases with greatly variable clinical and histologic features. Recently, Liebow, Steer and Billingsley1 called attention to a pathological picture that, . . .