Modern approaches to the management of patients with bronchoectasia

Abstract

The bronchoectasia (BE) is a chronic heterogeneous lung disease characterized by recurrent infection, inflammation, persistent cough and sputum discharge. The early BE diagnosis is one of the main recommendations of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) guidelines, which requires medical history collection and multispiral computed tomography (MSCT) of thoracic organs. Despite the complex examination, in most patients BE is classified as idiopathic. The minimum set of tests, including serum immunoglobulins, allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis tests and hematology is proposed in ERS guideline for detection of BE causes. Other examinations are recommended to perform based on disease history and radiological characteristics, indicating the importance of BE clinical phenotype identification by different healthcare specialists, for which special examinations are required. Initial examination algorithms and management of patients with BE, in particular, MSCT-semiotics and clinical features, which could help to identify specific reasons are presented in the article.