The characteristics and prognosis of bronchiectasis patients with airflow limitation: a prospective longitudinal...

As bronchiectasis progresses, increasing degrees of airflow limitation can occur.

This study aimed to investigate whether concomitant airflow limitation was associated with poor prognosis in patients with bronchiectasis and to identify the characteristics of patients with airflow limitation in bronchiectasis.

A prospective longitudinal study was conducted to determine the characteristics and prognosis of bronchiectasis patients with airflow limitation.

We conducted a prospective longitudinal study. Patients who failed to complete the follow-up were withdrawn from the trial. High-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) was used for diagnosing bronchiectasis, whereas postbronchodilator forced expiratory volume in one second of the predicted value (post-FEV1%) was employed for grading airflow limitation. The main variables included questionnaires, anthropometric measurements, pulmonary function tests, laboratory tests, and CT findings. The primary outcome was frequent exacerbations. Differences among the groups were evaluated via two-tailed Student's t test or ANOVA for continuous variables if the data were normally distributed. In the case of a nonnormal distribution, the Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test were used. The chi-square test or Fisher's exact test was used for categorical variables. Binary logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors and calculate the odds ratio (OR) for frequent exacerbations.

A total of 189 subjects with bronchiectasis were enrolled in the study, including 97 patients with airflow limitation and 92 patients without airway obstruction. Patients with airflow limitation had greater numbers of exacerbations (1.46 ± 0.83 vs. 1.76 ± 1.10 times, P = 0.013) at 12 months after enrolment and greater numbers of hospitalizations (1.10 ± 0.30 vs. 1.36 ± 0.67 times, P = 0.0016) at 24 months after enrolment. In addition, acute exacerbations lasted longer (8.69 ± 3.78 vs. 13.11 ± 14.03 days, P = 0.0171), and the total number of hospitalizations was greater (1.34 ± 0.77 vs. 1.80 ± 1.67 times, P = 0.0421) for patients with a mean follow-up duration of 32 months (Table 3). Bronchiectasis patients with airflow limitation exhibit more severe manifestations of bronchiectasis both clinically and functionally. Furthermore, the cohort of bronchiectasis patients with airflow limitation had a significantly greater infection rate than did the BE group (P = 0.0244), with a notable disparity observed in the incidence of P. aeruginosa infection (P < 0.0001).

The results of our study suggest that patients with airflow limitation are more likely to experience acute exacerbations and hospitalizations than are those without airflow limitation. Patients with bronchiectasis concomitant with airflow limitation should be identified as early as possible, and individualized treatment methods should be formulated.