This Week in New England Journal of Medicine

This week in NEJM Armanios et al post a study on telomere repair and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. They found that <10% class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">telomere repair genes hTERT/hTR. This condition, as the name idiopathic (or as I like to call it IDIOT-Pathic) states has no known etiology, and no effective treatment. Even worse, by the time you are symptomatic it is nearly too late, as median survival is 3-5 years after diagnosis.

In January the specter of short telomeres was brought up implicated in heart attack. Perhaps telomere testing is the new marker. These studies require replication, but I am convinced that the system of telomere repair is involved in both disease processes.
Stay Tuned.