Long-term clinical course of anti-glycyl tRNA synthetase (anti-EJ) antibody-related interstitial lung disease pathologically proven by surgical lung biopsy

Table 5 Pathological diagnosis and findings

Diagnosis	n = 12
cellular-NSIP	4
fibrosing-NSIP	5
unclassifiable interstitial pneumonia	3
Findings	absent	mild	moderate	severe
Organizing pneumonia	1	0	7	4
Alveolar epithelial injury	1	1	8	2
Interstitial cellular infiltration	0	4	5	3
Pleural fibrosis	0	4	8	0
Collapse	1	4	6	1
Alveolar wall fibrosis	3	4	4	1
Pleuritis	2	9	1	0
Lymphoid follicles with germinal centers	6	6	0	0
Fibroblastic focus	8	2	2	0
Microscopic honeycombing	10	2	0	0

Organizing pneumonia involved less than 20% of the overall biopsy specimen when the diagnosis was NSIP [21]. Alveolar epithelial injury was defined as obscured border between alveolar septum and alveolar lumina with alveolar epithelial shedding, intra-alveolar cellular infiltration and membranous organization of the alveolar ducts and alveolar sac which meant focal acute lung injury. Collapse meant atelectatic alveoli with intra-alveolar fibrosis and agglutination of alveoli [35].
NSIP: nonspecific interstitial pneumonia

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