Pediatric Interstitial Lung Disease Program

The Pediatric Interstitial Lung Disease Program, located in NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, provides expert care for children with childhood interstitial lung disease (chILD), a group of rare diseases that affect the structure of the lungs and cause difficulty breathing and other complications.  

Our pulmonologists partner with scientists and experts across the country to improve our understanding of and develop new treatments for these under-researched diseases. We work closely with experts from other specialties to provide the most up-to-date care for our patients with chILD:

• Expert diagnosis from a team with experience in chILD
• Newest treatments and current information 
• Genetic testing for patients and their family members
• Access to clinical trials

Because chILD includes many different diseases that affect individual children in different ways, we tailor every step of the diagnosis and treatment to the unique set of symptoms your child is experiencing. 

What to Expect From Your Appointment

If your child has been diagnosed with or is suspected to have a chILD condition, he or she will be evaluated by a pulmonologist with expertise in this group of diseases. Please bring any test results from outside providers with you to your appointment.

We'll begin with a full physical exam and then we will schedule some tests to rule out other diseases that can affect the lungs. When tests point to chILD, a biopsy is usually performed to confirm the diagnosis and determine which type of disease is affecting your child. 

Depending on your child's symptoms, some of the tests we may perform include:

• Blood tests to measure oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the blood and check levels of inflammatory markers
• Chest CT scan using high resolution X-ray images to assess damage to the lungs
• Bronchoscopy to evaluate the airway, along with bronchoalveolar lavage to collect and examine lung cells
• Pulmonary function testing to measure how quickly your child can move air through the lungs
• Sweat test to rule out cystic fibrosis, a disease that affects the lungs
• Skin test to rule out allergies
• Electrocardiogram and echocardiogram to look for heart defects or pulmonary hypertension
• A polysomnogram to evaluate for sleep-related changes to oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the body
• Genetic testing to check for types of chILD diseases with known genetic links
• Lung biopsy to analyze a tissue sample, which can confirm a diagnosis of chILD and determine which type of disease is affecting your child

Conditions We Treat

ILD refers to a large group of rare diseases that affect the lungs. In children and adolescents, diseases include:

• Surfactant disorders
• Neuroendocrine cell hyperplasia of infancy
• Pulmonary interstitial glycogenosis
• Alveolar simplification disorders
• Alveolar hemorrhage syndromes
• Bronchiolitis obliterans
• Connective tissue disease associated ILD (dermatomyositis, mixed connective tissue disease, polymyositis, rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, Sjogren’s syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease)
• Cryptogenic organizing pneumonia
• Drug-induced ILD
• Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis
• Eosinophilic pneumonia
• Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (Wegener’s granulomatosis)
• Hypersensitivity pneumonitis
• Langerhans cell histiocytosis
• Lymphangiectasia
• Unclassifiable ILD

Our Doctors

Columbia's pediatric pulmonologists have expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of chILD. 

View Our Doctors