Tulane University School of Medicine – New Orleans

Victor Thannickal, MD, (left) and Joseph Lasky, MD, of the Tulane School of Medicine, are united in their fight against pulmonary fibrosis, with a combination of research efforts that seek to create more effective diagnostic tools and find ways to treat and halt disease progression. (Photo by Cheryl Gerber)

PF has nonspecific symptoms that are easily dismissed – a dry, lingering cough, fatigue and shortness of breath on exertion. Marked by progressive damage that leads to permanent scarring of lung tissue, disability and eventually death, PF is often underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed, in part because patients overlook symptoms as mere signs of “getting older.”)