[French practical guidelines for the diagnosis and management of IPF - 2021 update, full version]. / Recommandations pratiques pour le diagnostic et la prise en charge de la fibrose pulmonaire idiopathique ­ Actualisation 2021. Version intégrale.

BACKGROUND: Since the previous French guidelines were published in 2017, substantial additional knowledge about idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis has accumulated. METHODS: Under the auspices of the French-speaking Learned Society of Pulmonology and at the initiative of the coordinating reference center, practical guidelines for treatment of rare pulmonary diseases have been established. They were elaborated by groups of writers, reviewers and coordinators with the help of the OrphaLung network, as well as pulmonologists with varying practice modalities, radiologists, pathologists, a general practitioner, a head nurse, and a patients' association. The method was developed according to rules entitled "Good clinical practice" in the overall framework of the "Guidelines for clinical practice" of the official French health authority (HAS), taking into account the results of an online vote using a Likert scale. RESULTS: After analysis of the literature, 54 recommendations were formulated, improved, and validated by the working groups. The recommendations covered a wide-ranging aspects of the disease and its treatment: epidemiology, diagnostic modalities, quality criteria and interpretation of chest CT, indication and modalities of lung biopsy, etiologic workup, approach to familial disease entailing indications and modalities of genetic testing, evaluation of possible functional impairments and prognosis, indications for and use of antifibrotic therapy, lung transplantation, symptom management, comorbidities and complications, treatment of chronic respiratory failure, diagnosis and management of acute exacerbations of fibrosis. CONCLUSION: These evidence-based guidelines are aimed at guiding the diagnosis and the management in clinical practice of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

[French practical guidelines for the diagnosis and management of IPF - 2021 update, short version]. / Recommandations pratiques pour le diagnostic et la prise en charge de la fibrose pulmonaire idiopathique ­ Actualisation 2021. Version courte.

BACKGROUND: Since the previous French guidelines were published in 2017, substantial additional knowledge about idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis has accumulated. METHODS: Under the auspices of the French-speaking Learned Society of Pulmonology and at the initiative of the coordinating reference center, practical guidelines for treatment of rare pulmonary diseases have been established. They were elaborated by groups of writers, reviewers and coordinators with the help of the OrphaLung network, as well as pulmonologists with varying practice modalities, radiologists, pathologists, a general practitioner, a head nurse, and a patients' association. The method was developed according to rules entitled "Good clinical practice" in the overall framework of the "Guidelines for clinical practice" of the official French health authority (HAS), taking into account the results of an online vote using a Likert scale. RESULTS: After analysis of the literature, 54 recommendations were formulated, improved, and validated by the working groups. The recommendations covered a wide-ranging aspects of the disease and its treatment: epidemiology, diagnostic modalities, quality criteria and interpretation of chest CT, indication and modalities of lung biopsy, etiologic workup, approach to familial disease entailing indications and modalities of genetic testing, evaluation of possible functional impairments and prognosis, indications for and use of antifibrotic therapy, lung transplantation, symptom management, comorbidities and complications, treatment of chronic respiratory failure, diagnosis and management of acute exacerbations of fibrosis. CONCLUSION: These evidence-based guidelines are aimed at guiding the diagnosis and the management in clinical practice of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Noninvasive genetic tracking of the endangered Pyrenean brown bear population.

Pyrenean brown bears Ursus arctos are threatened with extinction. Management efforts to preserve this population require a comprehensive knowledge of the number and sex of the remaining individuals and their respective home ranges. This goal has been achieved using a combination of noninvasive genetic sampling of hair and faeces collected in the field and corresponding track size data. Genotypic data were collected at 24 microsatellite loci using a rigorous multiple-tubes approach to avoid genotyping errors associated with low quantities of DNA. Based on field and genetic data, the Pyrenean population was shown to be composed at least of one yearling, three adult males, and one adult female. These data indicate that extinction of the Pyrenean brown bear population is imminent without population augmentation. To preserve the remaining Pyrenean gene pool and increase genetic diversity, we suggest that managers consider population augmentation using only females. This study demonstrates that comprehensive knowledge of endangered small populations of mammals can be obtained using noninvasive genetic sampling.

Sexing free-ranging brown bears Ursus arctos using hairs found in the field.

As an aid to the management of the Pyrenean population of the brown bear Ursus arctos, a sexing method based on the amplification of a Y chromosome specific sequence has been developed, and tested using hairs found in the field as a source of DNA. This method involves a two-step polymerase chain reaction (PCR) which allows the detection of a very small amount of DNA, probably a single SRY gene molecule. The sex can reliably be identified using about 50pg of DNA extract as template. It is possible that this approach could, with adjustments, be used to identify the sex of other species of eutherian mammals.