NSIP vs UIP

Interstitial lung disease is a bucket term for lots of diseases. 20% of ILD is from connective tissue disease. Patients will present with insidious symptoms and you need to remember to order a high resolution CT scan for diagnosis (this gives us supine/prone images, inspiratory/expiatory images, and also thin slices). Also order PFT and an echo. ILD in our diseases cause significant morbidity and mortality. Two forms of ILD we commonly see in CTD include UIP and NSIP. Each one has unique pathological features. Use the mnemonic above to study up the major differences.