A rare but devastating disease with an unknown cause, Idiopathic pulmonary haemosiderosis, can possibly be managed now after a potential breakthrough was announced by researchers at Queen Mary University London and the University of Leicester.

Clinicians and scientists from the two universities have already treated one patient and noticed promising results.

From Sciencedaily.com:

“Affected patients have episodes of bleeding in the lungs, which often need hospital admissions, and in some cases it can be life threatening. This is normally combated by the use of continuous oral steroids (which can have major side effects).

“In a child local to Leicester, we were able to show, for the first time, that there was high levels of oxidative stress in the lungs. In addition, we treated the increased oxidative stress by using of an antioxidant, N-acetyl cysteine - which has no side effects. Since she has been on this treatment she has had no lung bleeds, and the steroid dose has been significantly reduced.”

Dr Marcus Cooke, Senior lecturer in the Radiation and Oxidative Stress Section at the University of Leicester, added: “It is a really good feeling to be involved in a project looking at oxidative stress, that can make such an enormous difference to a person’s quality of life.

Preliminary data was published as a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine.