Book excerpt: Interstitial Lung Disease, Fourth Edition is a complete publication of interstitial lung diseases and includes clinical, pathologic, radiologic, and physiologic evaluation of the patient with ILD. It provides a basic pathobiology and a complete description of individual disease entities. The book covers a wide array of disorders - sarcoidosis, asbestosis, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, drug-induced lung disease, connective tissue disease, and pulmonary vasculitis, to name but a few. This new edition also features an examination of future potential therapies for interstitial lung disease. Interstitial Lung Disease is divided into three sections. The Clinical Approach section provides the basis for recognizing the key features that allow a specific diagnosis to be achieved. The section dedicated to Basic Mechanisms emphasizes the many advances in genetics and cellular and molecular biology that have greatly expanded our understanding of the biological processes involved in the pathogenesis of the interstitial lung diseases. The third section titled Clinical Entities describes the clinical manifestations, radiologic patterns, histopathological features, and management of the specific process