ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the clinical, pathologic features, management, and prognosis of the various forms of interstitial pneumonias. The derivation of the nomenclature for the interstitial pneumonias is based on the predominant cell in the interstitial infiltrate. When obliterative bronchiolitis is associated with interstitial pneumonia, it is called bronchiolitis obliterans with interstitial pneumonia. Bronchiolitis obliterans can result from complications of pneumonia and bronchiolitis due to bacteria, virus, mycoplasma, and inhalation of irritant gases. Bronchiolitis obliterans though more usually found in adults has been observed in infants and children. In infants and children, bronchiolitis obliterans occurs as a complication of viral, bacterial, or mycoplasmal pneumonia. Persistence of respiratory symptoms way beyond the usual duration of the clinical course of bronchiolitis or pneumonia may indicate that obliterative bronchiolitis has complicated the clinical picture. H. Spencer described desquamative interstitial pneumonia in one case of severe interstitial eosinophilic pneumonia.
