Physiotherapy

A novel anti-inflammatory treatment for bronchiectasis that targets neutrophils has shown promising results in a phase 2 trial. In findings presented at ATS 2020 virtual meeting, brensocatib, a reversible inhibitor of dipeptidyl peptidase-1 (DPP1 inhibitor) showed positive effects against bronchietasis exacerbations in patients with non-CF bronchiectasis. Professor James Chalmers, British Lung Foundation Professor of Respiratory Research [...]

Vitamin D deficiency is common in adults with bronchiectasis and may be linked to radiological findings indicative of poor lung function, a study reports. The study, “Vitamin D Deficiency and Radiological Findings in Adult Non-Cystic Fibrosis Bronchiectasis,” was published in the Turkish Thoracic Journal. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that is naturally found in certain foods and can also [...]

Lung Foundation Australia have recently updated their bronchiectasis action plan. This can be downloaded from: LFA Bronchiectasis Action Plan

Lung Foundation Australia have excellent COVID 19 resources on their website collated from information provided by the Australian Government Department of Health and leading respiratory experts. Click here for more information. LFA - COVID 19 Factsheet

Interview with Infectious diseases expert, Prof James Chalmers. Patient: I am a patient with bronchiectasis. Am I at more risk of getting COVID-19 than somebody who doesn't have bronchiectasis? Prof Chalmers: No - the infection can be caught by anyone, but patients with underlying lung conditions might be more likely to show symptoms of the infection, [...]

A recent paper in Respiratory Medicine has shown that the prevalence and incidence of bronchiectasis in the UK is increasing, with a 3% increase in mortality. Interestingly they showed that the prevalence was higher in less-deprived subjects in contrast to other respiratory disorders. The survey estimates that around 212,000 people are currently living with bronchiectasis [...]

Results from the Australian Bronchiectasis Registry (ABR) show a gap between guideline recommendations and real-world treatment of bronchiectasis, even in tertiary centres. Data from 589 patients with bronchiectasis enrolled with the registry suggest that treatment is often limited by lack of access to recommended services such as pulmonary rehabiliation, according to study investigator Dr Simone [...]

Bronchiectasis is a chronic respiratory disease of airway dilatation, where patients typically suffer from respiratory infections, fatigue, sputum, cough, dyspnoea and poor quality of life [1, 2].  A number of new treatment approaches have been proposed including long term antibiotic therapies and immune modulating drugs [6, 7, 11, 12]. Nevertheless the area of bronchiectasis care that has received the [...]

The Australian Bronchiectasis Registry (ABR), established in 2015, aims to evaluate clinical phenotypes of Australians with bronchiectasis. Their first report, published in Respiratory Medicine (Australian adults with bronchiectasis. The first report from the Australian Bronchiectasis Registry)  provides information on the baseline characteristics of the ABR adult cohort and assesses the influence of disease severity and [...]

The British Thoracic Society have updated their recommendations and clinical practice points in January 2019. Key points included are related to imaging, in whom a diagnosis of bronchiectasis should be suspected, investigations for the aetiology, which patients should be taught airway clearance techniques, which techniques should be taught, how frequent and what to include during [...]