Strengths and limitations
decline in lung function
This is the largest study to date to describe downstream impacts of screen-detected ILA including the proportion of screening participants needing review in an ILD service and the proportion eventually receiving pharmacotherapy. The main limitation is that findings are only available from the baseline round of screening (the first incidence screening round is still underway). The proportions of participants needing review by the ILD service, and fulfilling criteria for pharmacotherapy will therefore increase with time—first as people already under surveillance with the ILD team experience a decline in lung function parameters and therefore cross treatment thresholds and second as incident screening rounds reveal new onset or progression of ILA compared with the baseline screen.