[Bronchiectasis in adult: Radio-clinical features, etiologies and evolution]

Introduction-Aim: Bronchiectasis, which was once considered an orphan disease in developed countries, is common in Tunisia as in all emerging countries. The purpose of the present study is to determine radio-clinical features, etiologies and evolution of bronchiectasis.

Monocentric, retrospective and descriptive study including all patients followed in the pulmonology department, Gabes University Hospital, for bronchiectasis confirmed by a chest CT scan between January 2016 and December 2023.

A total of 70 patients were included in the study. The mean age was 60.39±18.68 years. Symptomatology was dominated by cough and morning bronchorrhea. The diagnosis of bronchiectasis was confirmed in all patients. Chest CT scan showed diffused bronchiectasis in 85.7% cases, localized in 14.2% cases and bilateral in 87% cases. Bronchiectasis was secondary to pulmonary tuberculosis in 62.8% of cases and idiopathic in 12.8% of cases. Complications were dominated by bronchopulmonary infections (21.4% of cases) and hemoptysis (28.5% of cases). Ten patients (14.2%) with diffuse and bilateral bronchiectasis progressed to chronic respiratory failure.

Our study shows that the etiologies of bronchiectasis are dominated in our context by tuberculosis despite the national tuberculosis control program. Diffuse and bilateral bronchiectasis are frequent and associated with a poor prognosis.