Physiotherapy

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 [...]

After publishing the first guidelines in the world on the diagnosis and management of bronchiectasis back in 2008, the Spanish Society of Pulmonology (SEPAR) have updated their review of the literature and recommendations. Highlights include treatment of bronchiectasis from a multidisciplinary and multidimensional perspective, including existing therapies, nutritional aspects, airway clearance therapy, muscle training and [...]

Vitamin D is a key molecule known to be involved in inflammation and immune responses so a team of Italian researchers sought to investigate whether vitamin D deficiency could be a factor in the clinical severity of bronchiectasis. The study, Vitamin D and disease severity in bronchiectasis (Ferri et al 2019) published in the journal [...]

Inhaled antibiotics have been proposed as efficient treatments to reduce bacterial infections in bronchiectasis patients. Now researchers have shown that a new formulation of antibiotics using nanoparticles, called nanoplex, as a delivery vehicle has advantages compared to previous formulations. The study, “An evaluation of inhaled antibiotic liposome versus antibiotic nanoplex in controlling infection in bronchiectasis,” was published in the International [...]

The latest European Respiratory Society Monograph: Bronchiectasis is now available! A team of world recognised experts in bronchiectasis have contributed to this monograph, covering topics from diagnosis, pathophysiology, microbiology, comorbidities, clinical features and consequences, medical and physiotherapy management. It highlights some of the clinical challenges faced in clinical trials and incorporates a number of case [...]

The 3rd World Bronchiectasis conference was held in July 2018 in Georgetown, Washington DC. With a mix of world class presenters, it provided a comprehensive update on the latest options for management in bronchiectasis and Non-tuberculosis Mycobacterium (NTM) . The meeting highlighted the power of international registries, with growth in multiple areas of knowledge, including [...]