Bronchiectasis and immunosuppression: a single-center analysis.

Le résumé fourni par la source

Bronchiectasis is a chronic respiratory disease characterized by abnormal and permanent dilation of portions of the bronchial tree, leading to mucus accumulation and the frequent development of bronchitis and pneumonia. Immunosuppression is one of the factors that can lead to the development of bronchiectasis. Therefore, we attempted to identify whether the group of immunosuppressed bronchiectasis patients exhibits distinctive characteristics in terms of severity, exacerbations, colonizations, hospitalizations, or functional decline. We have analyzed bronchiectasis patients classified as having immunodeficiency, rheumatologic or inflammatory bowel diseases, or those on chronic steroid therapy (e.g. prednisone 2.5 mg/die for at least 4 weeks per year), who are under routine follow-up at our center to identify potential specific characteristics compared to non-immunosuppressed patients. A total of 166 patients with bronchiectasis were considered, of whom 32 were classified as immunosuppressed. The chi-square p-value was calculated to determine whether the difference between the two distributions was statistically significant. No differences were observed between the two groups in terms of exacerbation frequency, hospitalizations, colonizations, isolations, or functional decline. However, regarding bronchiectasis severity, as assessed by the Bronchiectasis Severity Index (BSI), a higher proportion of patients with severe bronchiectasis (BSI > 9) was noted in the non-immunosuppressed group (41.04% vs. 37.50%, p-value 0.0001). Stratifying patients with bronchiectasis based on their characteristics and comorbidities could lead to a better classification of those at higher risk of developing greater disease severity.

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