Objective: To determine predictors of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD). Methods: A cross-sectional study comprising 63 patients, all of whom underwent lung function testing and the six-minute walk test. The following instruments were used: the Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short-form Survey (SF-36), the Saint George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Modified Medical Research Council Dyspnea Scale. Principal component analysis was used in order to reduce the dimensionality of the data, thereby identifying the predictor variables, and multiple linear regression analysis was used in order to identify the explanatory variables. Results: Of the 63 patients, 34 were female. The mean age was 60.1 ± 13.3 years, the mean FVC was 64.17 ± 15.54% of predicted, and the mean DLCO was 44.21 ± 14.47% of predicted. All of the patients evaluated had impaired HRQoL, scoring worst for the SF-36 physical functioning and SGRQ activity domains. Of the patients evaluated, 60.3% and 57.1% showed symptoms of anxiety and depression, respectively. The principal component analysis identified one predictor of physical HRQoL and one predictor of mental HRQoL. Depression had a strong influence on the predictor of mental HRQoL, and the degree of dyspnea had a strong influence on both predictors of HRQoL in the patients evaluated. Variables related to lung function, exercise capacity, and anxiety had no impact on these predictors. Conclusions: In our sample of patients with ILD, the degree of dyspnea had a major impact on the physical and mental HRQoL, and depression had an impact on mental HRQoL.

Keywords: Anxiety; Depression; Dyspnea; Lung diseases, interstitial; Quality of life; Respiratory function tests.

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of respiratory symptoms as the motive for emergency room visits by adult and pediatric patients, describing the major clinical syndromes diagnosed and the outcomes of the patients. Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted in the emergency room of a tertiary care university hospital. Between November of 2008 and November of 2009, we reviewed the total number of emergency room visits per day. Children and adults who presented with at least one respiratory symptom were included in the study. The electronic medical records were reviewed, and the major characteristics of the patients were recorded. Results: During the study period, there were 37,059 emergency room visits, of which 11,953 (32.3%) were motivated by respiratory symptoms. The prevalence of emergency room visits due to respiratory symptoms was 28.7% and 38.9% among adults and children, respectively. In adults, the rates of hospitalization and mortality were 21.2% and 2.7%, respectively, compared with 11.9% and 0.3%, respectively, in children. Among the adults, the time from symptom onset to emergency room visit correlated positively with the need for hospitalization (p < 0.0001), the length of the hospital stay (p < 0.0001), and the mortality rate (p = 0.028). Conclusions: We found a high prevalence of respiratory symptoms as the motive for emergency room visits by adult and pediatric patients. Our results could inform decisions regarding the planning of prevention measures. Further epidemiological studies are needed in order to clarify the risk factors for severe respiratory symptoms.