• paediatric interstitial lung disease

Rare paediatric lung diseases have been a challenge over years for paediatric pulmonologists.

There has been growing attention to rare lung diseases in paediatrics in recent years. Especially, childhood interstitial lung disease (chILD) became an area of special interest since comprehensive classification systems1 and clinical network2 have been steadily developed.

chILD is an umbrella term representing a highly heterogenous group of rare diseases comprising more than 200 different lung conditions.2 The incidence in Europe is 0.5–1 case in 100 000.3 In the UK and Ireland, the prevalence is estimated as 0.36 cases per 100 000 children.4 The prognosis varies from a mild, self-limiting disease to a rapidly progressive, fulminant course and individual diagnosis are often associated with substantial morbidity and mortality.2

As most centres only see few cases per year, there is limited knowledge about the onset, severity and the course of each of …