Patients with interstitial lung disease are at greater risk of acquiring and succumbing to severe COVID-19 compared with peers who don’t have the condition, a large study finds.

The research also suggests that fibrotic scarring of the lungs may increase patients’ susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection, say the study authors from South Korea.

Although the findings “seem logical” given the elevated risk of severe COVID-19 in people with COPD and thoracic malignancy, the team say the evidence to date on interstitial lung disease (ILD) has been inconclusive and comes from single-centre studies.

In their nested case-control study, the team analysed nationwide data from 8000 patients with COVID-19 to assess likelihood of having underlying ILD.