Let's talk about sex in interstitial lung disease.

Abstract

Both biological sex and the social construct of gender affect presentations, outcomes, and responses to therapy across several different diseases, including cardiovascular disease, renal disease, and some cancers. To date, a paucity of studies have assessed the effect of sex in patients with interstitial lung disease. The most common idiopathic interstitial pneumonia, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, is often considered to be a male-predominant disease, and connective tissue disease-associated interstitial lung diseases are typically thought to be female predominant, with some variability.