The morbidity associated with DIPNECH is due to the associated obstructive lung disease. The lung disease tends to be slowly progressive, but given enough time can lead to significant disability and require supplemental oxygen therapy. There have been reports of lung transplantation in the setting of end-stage DIPNECH.

OPA has been found in most countries where sheep are farmed, with the exception of Australia and New Zealand. OPA has been eradicated in Iceland.

No breed or sex of sheep appears to be predisposed to OPA. Most affected sheep show signs at 2 to 4 years of age.

OPA is not a notifiable disease, and therefore it is difficult to assess its prevalence.

To date there have been no clinical trials to determine effective treatment for this disease. Some patients have been treated with somatostatin analogs. Although the cough associated with DIPNECH tends to diminish on this treatment, improvement in pulmonary function has not been clearly demonstrated. There are also reports of symptomatic treatment with long- and short-acting beta agonists. Although steroids, both oral and inhaled, have been used in the setting of DIPNECH, there is no clear improvement with this treatment.

It is not uncommon for typical carcinoids to arise within DIPNECH. Due to presence of these tumors, DIPNECH is classified as a pre-malignant condition. Although there have been reports of atypical carcinoids with local lymph node involvement, there are no reports of more aggressive neuroendocrine tumors, such as large cell neuroendocrine or small cell lung cancer, associated with DIPNECH. When isolated bronchial carcinoids are diagnosed, oncology guidelines recommend surgical resection with lymph node sampling. However, as multiple carcinoids may develop in the setting of DIPNECH, a more conservative approach is often considered to preserve lung function.

According to a recent study, the main risk factors for RA-ILD are advancing age, male sex, greater RA disease activity, rheumatoid factor (RF) positivity, and elevated titers of anticitrullinated protein antibodies such as anticyclic citrullinated peptide. Cigarette smoking also appears to increase risk of RA-ILD, especially in patients with human leukocyte antigen DRB1.

A recently published retrospective study by a team from Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital in Beijing, China, supported three of the risk factors listed for RA-ILD and identified an additional risk factor. In that study of 550 RA patients, logistic regression analysis of data collected on the 237 (43%) with ILD revealed that age, smoking, RF positivity, and elevated lactate dehydrogenase closely correlated with ILD.

Recent studies have identified risk factors for disease progression and mortality. A retrospective study of 167 patients with RA-ILD determined that the usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) pattern on high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) was a risk factor for progression, as were severe disease upon diagnosis and rate of change in pulmonary function test results in the first 6 months after diagnosis.

A study of 59 RA-ILD patients found no median survival difference between those with the UIP pattern and those without it. But the UIP group had more deaths, hospital admissions, need for supplemental oxygen, and decline in lung function.

Typical pulmonary carcinoid tumour is a subtype of pulmonary carcinoid tumour. It is an uncommon low-grade malignant lung mass that is most often in the central airways of the lung.

It is also known as typical lung carcinoid tumour, lung carcinoid, and typical lung carcinoid.

Genetic changes are very high in SCLC and LCNEC, but usually low for TC, intermediate for AC.

Respiratory disease is a common and significant cause of illness and death around the world. In the US, approximately 1 billion "common colds" occur each year. A study found that in 2010, there were approximately 6.8 million emergency department visits for respiratory disorders in the U.S. for patients under the age of 18. In 2012, respiratory conditions were the most frequent reasons for hospital stays among children.

In the UK, approximately 1 in 7 individuals are affected by some form of chronic lung disease, most commonly chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which includes asthma, chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

Respiratory diseases (including lung cancer) are responsible for over 10% of hospitalizations and over 16% of deaths in Canada.

In 2011, respiratory disease with ventilator support accounted for 93.3% of ICU utilization in the United States.

ILD may be classified according to the cause. One method of classification is as follows:

1. Inhaled substances

- Inorganic

- Silicosis

- Asbestosis

- Berylliosis

- printing workers (eg. carbon bblack, ink mist)

- Organic

- Hypersensitivity pneumonitis

2. Drug-induced

- Antibiotics

- Chemotherapeutic drugs

- Antiarrhythmic agents

3. Connective tissue and Autoimmune diseases

- Rheumatoid arthritis

- Systemic lupus erythematosus

- Systemic sclerosis

- Polymyositis

- Dermatomyositis

4. Infection

- Atypical pneumonia

- Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP)

- Tuberculosis

- "Chlamydia" trachomatis

- Respiratory Syncytial Virus

5. Idiopathic

- Sarcoidosis

- Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

- Hamman-Rich syndrome

- Antisynthetase syndrome

6. Malignancy

- Lymphangitic carcinomatosis

7. Predominantly in children

- Diffuse developmental disorders

- Growth abnormalities deficient alveolarisation

- Infant conditions of undefined cause

- ILD related to alveolar surfactant region

Respiratory disease is a medical term that encompasses pathological conditions affecting the organs and tissues that make gas exchange possible in higher organisms, and includes conditions of the upper respiratory tract, trachea, bronchi, bronchioles, alveoli, pleura and pleural cavity, and the nerves and muscles of breathing. Respiratory diseases range from mild and self-limiting, such as the common cold, to life-threatening entities like bacterial pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, acute asthma and lung cancer.

The study of respiratory disease is known as pulmonology. A doctor who specializes in respiratory disease is known as a pulmonologist, a chest medicine specialist, a respiratory medicine specialist, a respirologist or a thoracic medicine specialist.

Respiratory diseases can be classified in many different ways, including by the organ or tissue involved, by the type and pattern of associated signs and symptoms, or by the cause of the disease.

Studies reflecting international frequency demonstrated that 2-3% of all infants in NICUs develop pulmonary interstitial emphysema. When limiting the population studied to premature infants, this frequency increases to 20-30%, with the highest frequencies occurring in infants weighing fewer than 1000 g.

The disease has a long incubation period, and therefore signs usually occur in adult animals (over 2 years of age). Clinical signs resemble a non-specific progressive pneumonia, including poor body condition and, particularly after exercise, respiratory difficulty. Unless a concurrent lung infection is present, affected sheep continue to eat. The only sign specific to OPA is a watery nasal discharge, consisting of lung fluid produced by the affected lung tissue; lifting the hind legs of the animal above the level of its head will cause large volumes of this fluid to flow from the nostrils.

There are no reliable tests for the diagnosis of OPA in live animals which are suitable for use on farms, so diagnosis can only be confirmed at necropsy (post-mortem examination). On necropsy, lungs are interspersed with multifocal tumors. Some of these are small discrete nodules and others will involve the entire half of a lung lobule. JSRV acutely transforms the lung epithelia into cancerous cells, with type-2 pneumocytes and club cells being the likely target for JSRV transformation. The tumors have overactive secretory functions, which are a hallmark of OPA.

The retroviral antigen levels of JSRV are very high in OPA tumors and can be detected in the lung secretions of infected sheep. It is thought that infected animals secrete the virus before showing signs, so the virus is easily spread within flocks.

The prevalence of pulmonary interstitial emphysema widely varies with the population studied. In a 1987 study 3% of infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) developed pulmonary interstitial emphysema.

Pulmonary fibrosis may be a secondary effect of other diseases. Most of these are classified as interstitial lung diseases. Examples include autoimmune disorders, viral infections and bacterial infection like tuberculosis which may cause fibrotic changes in both lungs upper or lower lobes and other microscopic injuries to the lung. However, pulmonary fibrosis can also appear without any known cause. In this case, it is termed "idiopathic". Most idiopathic cases are diagnosed as "idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis". This is a diagnosis of exclusion of a characteristic set of histologic/pathologic features known as usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP). In either case, there is a growing body of evidence which points to a genetic predisposition in a subset of patients. For example, a mutation in surfactant protein C (SP-C) has been found to exist in some families with a history of pulmonary fibrosis.

Diseases and conditions that may cause pulmonary fibrosis as a secondary effect include:

- Inhalation of environmental and occupational pollutants, such as metals in asbestosis, silicosis and exposure to certain gases. Coal miners, ship workers and sand blasters among others are at higher risk.

- Hypersensitivity pneumonitis, most often resulting from inhaling dust contaminated with bacterial, fungal, or animal products.

- Cigarette smoking can increase the risk or make the illness worse.

- Some typical connective tissue diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, SLE and scleroderma

- Other diseases that involve connective tissue, such as sarcoidosis and granulomatosis with polyangiitis.

- Infections

- Certain medications, e.g. amiodarone, bleomycin (pingyangmycin), busulfan, methotrexate, apomorphine, and nitrofurantoin

- Radiation therapy to the chest

Lung carcinoids typically present with a cough or hemoptysis. Findings may closely mimic malignant tumours of the lung, i.e. lung cancer.

Many cases of restrictive lung disease are idiopathic (have no known cause). Still, there is generally pulmonary fibrosis. Examples are:

- Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

- Idiopathic interstitial pneumonia, of which there are several types

- Sarcoidosis

- Eosinophilic pneumonia

- Lymphangioleiomyomatosis

- Pulmonary Langerhans' cell histiocytosis

- Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis

Conditions specifically affecting the interstitium are called interstitial lung diseases.

The exact cause of rheumatoid lung disease is unknown. However, associated factors could be due largely to smoking. Sometimes, the medicines used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, especially methotrexate, may result in lung disease.

Prevention's:

- Stop smoking: Chemicals found in cigarettes can irritate already delicate lung tissue, leading to further complications.

- Having regular checkups: The doctor could listen to lungs and monitor breathing, because lung problems that are detected early can be easier to treat.

Restrictive lung diseases may be due to specific causes which can be intrinsic to the parenchyma of the lung, or extrinsic to it.

Interstitial lung disease (ILD), or diffuse parenchymal lung disease (DPLD), is a group of lung diseases affecting the interstitium (the tissue and space around the air sacs of the lungs). It concerns alveolar epithelium, pulmonary capillary endothelium, basement membrane, perivascular and perilymphatic tissues. It may occur when an injury to the lungs triggers an abnormal healing response. Ordinarily, the body generates just the right amount of tissue to repair damage. But in interstitial lung disease, the repair process goes awry and the tissue around the air sacs (alveoli) becomes scarred and thickened. This makes it more difficult for oxygen to pass into the bloodstream. The term ILD is used to distinguish these diseases from obstructive airways diseases.

In children, several unique forms of ILD exist which are specific for the young age groups. The acronym chILD is used for this group of diseases and is derived from the English name, Children’s Interstitial Lung Diseases – chILD.

Prolonged ILD may result in pulmonary fibrosis, but this is not always the case. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is interstitial lung disease for which no obvious cause can be identified (idiopathic), and is associated with typical findings both radiographic (basal and pleural based fibrosis with honeycombing) and pathologic (temporally and spatially heterogeneous fibrosis, histopathologic honeycombing and fibroblastic foci).

In 2013 interstitial lung disease affected 595,000 people globally. This resulted in 471,000 deaths.

Pulmonary neuroendocrine tumors are neuroendocrine tumors localized to the lung: bronchus or pulmonary parenchyma.

Pulmonary neuroendocrine tumors include a spectrum of tumors from the low-grade typical pulmonary carcinoid tumor and intermediate-grade atypical pulmonary carcinoid tumor to the high-grade pulmonary large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC) and pulmonary small cell carcinoma (SCLC), with significant clinical, epidemiologic and genetic differences.

Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas has conducted ACD research since 2001.

The incidence of clinical HAPE in unacclimatized travelers exposed to high altitude (~) appears to be less than 1%. The U.S. Army Pike's Peak Research Laboratory has exposed sea-level-resident volunteers rapidly and directly to high altitude; during 30 years of research involving about 300 volunteers (and over 100 staff members), only three have been evacuated with suspected HAPE.

Alveolar lung diseases, are a group of diseases that mainly affect the alveoli of the lungs.

SIPE is estimated to occur in 1-2% of competitive open-water swimmers, with 1.4% of triathletes, 1.8% of combat swimmers and 1.1% of divers and swimmers reported in the literature.

Five million people worldwide are affected by pulmonary fibrosis. A wide range of incidence and prevalence rates have been reported for pulmonary fibrosis. The rates below are per 100,000 persons, and the ranges reflect narrow and broad inclusion criteria, respectively.

Based on these rates, pulmonary fibrosis prevalence in the United States could range from more than 29,000 to almost 132,000, based on the population in 2000 that was 18 years or older. The actual numbers may be significantly higher due to misdiagnosis. Typically, patients are in their forties and fifties when diagnosed while the incidence of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis increases dramatically after the age of fifty. However, loss of pulmonary function is commonly ascribed to old age, heart disease or to more common lung diseases.

There is still much debate to whether pulmonary sequestration is a congenital problem or acquired through reccurent pulmonary infection. It is widely believed that extralobar pulmonary sequestrations are a result of prenatal pulmonary malformation while intralobar pulmonary sequestrations can develop due to reccurent pulmonary infections in adolescents and young adults.