| Additional Information | When the cause of an illness is not clear, there is an unknown risk to any recipient of donated material.
In certain circumstances, the aetiology could be multi-factorial, although it is not clearly established, there are no concerns relating to person to person transmission. In these cases, tissues could be accepted for clinical use, based on current available evidence. For example, the most frequent form of pulmonary fibrosis is idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) where there is no identifiable underlying cause. Diagnostic criteria for IPF have evolved over the years, and IPF is currently defined as a disease characterized by the histopathologic pattern of interstitial pneumonia occurring in the absence of an identifiable cause of lung injury. IPF is believed to be a heterogeneous disorder caused by various interactions between genetic components and environmental exposures. Although an understanding of the pathogenesis of IPF is incomplete, recent advances delineating specific clinical and pathologic features of IPF have led to better definition of the molecular pathways that are pathologically activated in the disease. On this basis, IPF is not an absolute contraindication for tissue donation. |