Pharmacological Treatment of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: Current Approaches, Unsolved Issues, and Future Perspectives

Table 1

Key recommendations on pharmacological treatment of IPF according to current guideline.

	2015 guideline	2011 guideline
Therapeutic agent
Pirfenidone	Conditional recommendation for use	Weak recommendation against use
Nintedanib	Conditional recommendation for use	Not addressed
Antiacid therapy	Conditional recommendation for use	Weak recommendation for use
Phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitor (sildenafil)	Conditional recommendation against use	Not addressed
Dual endothelin receptor antagonists (bosentan, macitentan)	Conditional recommendation against use	Strong recommendation against use
N-acetylcysteine (NAC)	Conditional recommendation against use	Weak recommendation against use
Azathioprine + corticosteroids + NAC	Strong recommendation against use	Weak recommendation against use
Warfarin	Strong recommendation against use	Weak recommendation against use
Imatinib	Strong recommendation against use	Not addressed
Selective endothelin receptor antagonist (ambrisentan)	Strong recommendation against use	Not addressed

Conditional recommendations are synonymous with weak recommendations.