Mortality in Non-cystic Fibrosis Bronchiectasis

Mortality in Non-cystic Fibrosis Bronchiectasis: a Long-term Cohort Analysis

In this study we analyzed the overall survival for all newly diagnosed patients with non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis from June 2006 onwards. The investigators wanted to confirm the known risk factors such as age, gender, smoking history and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and evaluate the impact on survival of etiology, number of different bacteriological species in retrospective and prospective sputa, azithromycin use and presence/development of pulmonary hypertension.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients with clinically significant and radiologically proven bronchiectasis
• Chest CT scan confirming the presence of bronchiectatic lesions and had symptoms of chronic productive cough
• Bronchiectasis was deemed to be present if there was one or more of the following criteria: a bronchoarterial ratio greater than 1, lack of tapering of the bronchi and visualization of bronchi within 1 cm of costal or paravertebral pleura or abutting the mediastinal pleura

Exclusion Criteria:

• diagnosis of cystic fibrosis
• underlying tumoral problem causing the bronchiectatic lesions (postradiotherapy, secondary immunodeficiency due to chemotherapy or postinfectious due to tumoral obstruction)
• patients with asymptomatic traction bronchiectasis caused by interstitial lung disease