Moderate resting hypoxaemia in fibrotic interstitial lung disease

Abstract

Long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) is universally accepted as standard care for patients with severe resting hypoxaemia, irrespective of underlying diagnosis, with the aim being to improve patient survival. COPD and fibrotic interstitial lung disease (ILD) are the two most common indications for LTOT globally [1–4]. As therapeutic benefits of LTOT have only been established in patients with COPD [5, 6], current prescribing recommendations are based on the study entry criteria used in the pivotal clinical trials of LTOT in COPD [5, 6]. Patients with ILD have significantly worse survival after commencing LTOT than patients with COPD [7, 8]. Despite fibrotic ILD and COPD sharing similar clinical p..