Airway clearance practice in people with bronchiectasis: A Northern Ireland (NI) survey

Abstract

Airway clearance treatments (ACT) aim to facilitate sputum expectoration and reduce pulmonary exacerbations. Guidelines recommend that patients with bronchiectasis should be taught ACT and ACBT&nbsp;or&nbsp;oscillating positive expiratory pressure should be offered. Current ACT practice in NI is unknown. <b>Aim:</b> To summarise patient reported ACT practice using an online survey. <b>Method:</b> The “ACT-BE” online survey was developed with patient and clinician groups. Patients in NI enrolled on the EMBARC registry were invited to participate. <b>Results:</b> On 26th January 2021 in an interim analysis, survey responses from 186/400 (47%) patients with bronchiectasis who received an invitation, were available for analysis.&nbsp;12/186 (6%) were never taught an ACT. 126/186 (68%) patients were first taught ACT by a physiotherapist whilst an outpatient; 26/186 (14%) whilst an inpatient; 3/186 (2%) in their own home and 1/186 (0.5%) in health centre. 13/186 (7%) reported being taught by another means e.g. by a doctor or nurse; 1/186 (0.5%) were self-taught and 4/186 (2%) didn’t know/ didn’t recall. 149/186 patients reported the type of ACT used (Figure 1). <b>Conclusions:</b> In this study of bronchiectasis patients in NI, most received their first consultation on ACT from a physiotherapist in the outpatient setting and were using ACT +/- ACT adjunct + exercise. <b>Acknowledgements:</b> Study funded by Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke.