Clinical Outcomes of BronchiEctaSis in Taiwan: A Multicenter Prospective Cohort (BEST Study)

Bronchiectasis is a disease characteristic by bronchial dilatation. Bronchiectasis leads to further impairment of mucociliary clearance, causing a vicious cycle of further infection and progressive airway damage, resulting in poorer control of the primary disease. The clinical presentation is non-specific. The etiologies of bronchiectasis include post-infection, such as bacterial pneumonia, tuberculosis, or aspiration pneumonia, autoimmune disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis, or sjogren's syndrome, cystic fibrosis and immunoglobulin deficiency. The comorbidities of bronchiectasis include cardiovascular disease, cancer such as lung cancer, or esophageal cancer, gastro-oesophageal reflux disease and iron deficiency anemia. Treating these comorbidities will help for the prognosis of bronchiectasis. The treatment for bronchiectasis included airway clearance therapies, mucoactive medication, long term antibiotics and bronchodilator if indicated. Long term anti-inflammatory therapies are not suggested. Surgery is indicated if medical treatment failure and localized bronchiectasis or massive hemoptysis.

The different characteristics of bronchiectasis have been reported in different foreign studies. There were few studies in Taiwan. This is a prospective study to find the characteristics including comorbidities, severity, treatment in stable and exacerbation condition and pulmonary rehabilitation in Taiwan.