Pulmonology Department

​ For many years, the Departement of Pulmology has developed expertise in the areas of diffuse interstitial lung disease (ILD). ILD diseases may integrate a specific involvement of connective vascular disease (CVD) and especially during PR and scleroderma. More rarely they fit into the context of a primary or secondary Sjögren disease or PM/DPM. They also be related to a diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (DAH) associated with a polyangiitis. Our group is mainly involved in the description of the inaugural or lung dominant forms of CVD. We are involved in the ERS/ARS task force to define the concept of Interstitial Pneumonia with Auto-immue features (IPAF). We contributed to the description of the inaugural pulmonary forms of DPM/PM associated with anti-synthetase antibodies. We also differentiated acute and progressive forms, for which prognosis appears different. A therapeutic trial project with the group of Professor O Benveniste is in progress. Similarly, we contributed to dismantle the causes of DAH in particular the immunological forms. We proposed a clinical diagnostic score to differentiate during the first 24 hours to the immunological and non-immunological causes in attempt to early begin immunosuppressors in the former. 

​A large national prospective trial is ongoing to validate this score and to confirm its impact on treatment. We also studied pulmonary complication of drug given in CVD including methotrexate and retuximab and develop a expert program to diagnose drug induced pneumonitis (Pneumodoc®). Finally, we are international experts in the field of pulmonary MALT lymphomas. We hypothesized 3 initiator mechanisms, the first related to recurrent gene translocation, the second related to an auto-immune chronic stimulation of B cells and the third secondary to anti-infectious response to an hypothetic pathogen. This pathogen is under investigation within a collaborative project with the Institut Pasteur and the Intergroup Study the Lymphoma Association (LYSA). ​