Bronchiectasis: Know More About This Lung Infection

What is Bronchiectasis?

Bronchiectasis disease is a lung problem where the bronchial tubes connected to your lungs, or the airways, widen and get permanently damaged. These damaged passages are unable to clean the mucus from the lungs. As a result, bacteria cultivate in the uncleaned mucus, increasing inflammation and damaging the lungs. Hence, patients cough a lot when their body tries to eliminate the contaminated mucus.

What's the Difference Between Bronchiectasis and Bronchitis?

Bronchiectasis has identical symptoms to bronchitis, such as coughing and mucus collection in the lungs. However, bronchiectasis disease is a permanent sickness, while bronchitis is temporary and resolves after a short time. Hence, you will not sustain any lasting damage with the latter infection.

What are the Types of Bronchiectasis?

Cylindrical and varicose are the two bronchiectasis types based on the appearance of the infected and damaged airways. Let's know about these two types in detail:

• Cylindrical bronchiectasis: The most common type of bronchiectasis widens bronchial tubes and leads to uniform dilation of mucus. In this bronchiectasis, the affected airways maintain a cylindrical shape.
• Varicose bronchiectasis: This type of bronchiectasis disease leads to irregular dilution of mucus with bronchial tube contractions. This gives a varicose vein-type appearance to the airways.

Who Does Bronchiectasis Affect?

Individuals with an existing underlying condition like influenza, HIV, etc. that impacts the immune system of their body are more vulnerable to bronchiectasis. You may not be sensitive to the disease if you do not have any underlying health problems. However, the risk increases as you become older.

How Common is Bronchiectasis?

Many people think that bronchiectasis is an uncommon disease. However, around 350,000 to 500,000 suffer from this condition in the United States. This number includes at least one out of every 150 people, 75 years old or older, only giving you a rough idea, as many live without noticing bronchiectasis symptoms.

How Does Mucus Protect Your Body?

Lungs are sensitive to microorganisms all the time. Therefore, your body comprises a complex mechanism to protect your lungs from infections like bronchiectasis. If a harmful entity enters your body with air, the mucus in the airways will trap the particle.

Then, millions of cilia, which are minute, hair-like structures, use a coordinated movement to eliminate mucus from your lungs. It resembles waves moving junk to the coast. This process is known as mucociliary clearance, and the person may spit out the mucus by coughing or swallowing it, with stomach acid destroying the particle.

However, damaged cilia or trapped mucus due to pockets in the airways can result in mucus buildup in your lungs. This trapped bacteria will eventually multiply and spread infection, worsening the bronchiectasis.

Is bronchiectasis a Serious Lung Condition?

Bronchiectasis disease can be extreme or mild depending on the extent of damage your lungs suffer.

Some affected individuals have this condition yet are unaware of it. Contrarily, some people have been dealing with bronchiectasis for an extended period. They deal with frequent infections which have done some serious harm to their lungs. Moreover, several people are already managing the bronchiectasis symptoms by following the medications and advice of a doctor, therefore living a healthy life.

What are the Symptoms of Bronchiectasis?

Bronchiectasis symptoms can take anywhere from several months to years to fully develop. However, your healthcare provider may keep an eye out for the following symptoms:

• Repetitive chronic coughing
• Cough with excessive pus and thick mucus daily
• Chest pain
• Dyspnea or shortness of breath
• Wheezing or odd sounds in the chest during breathing
• Hemoptysis or blood sputum (coughing up blood)
• Loss of weight
• Fatigue
• Consistent respiratory infections

What Causes Bronchiectasis?

Healthcare professionals are still unaware of the initial bronchiectasis causes in about 40% of individuals impacted with bronchiectasis. Nevertheless, it is two phases of airway damage that result in bronchiectasis.

During the first phase, there is primary damage due to inflammatory disorders and infections that harm your lungs. This first damage increases your risk of getting frequent infections and inflammations, which further increases the damage to your lungs, and you reach the second phase, the vicious cycle.

What Diseases Cause Bronchiectasis?

Some causes of the primary damage that lead up to the bronchiectasis disease include:

• Microbial infections, such as TB or tuberculosis.
• Cystic Fibrosis. CF impacts the lungs and various body organs, such as the liver and pancreas.
• Autoimmune Disorders include lupus, Sjögren's syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis, and rheumatoid.
• Fibrosis due to radiation.
• Conditions that weaken immunity and advance the threat of infections, such as hypogammaglobulinemia and HIV.
• Organ transplants decrease immunity, increase infection chances, and result in bronchiectasis.
• ABPA (Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis) is an allergy to a fungus category.
• Lymph, tumours, and foreign bodies create a blockage in the air passages and hinder mucus clearance, causing bronchiectasis.
• Severe asthma

Does COVID-19 Cause Bronchiectasis?

According to research, COVID-19 is not a common reason for people getting bronchiectasis. However, individuals who get COVID-19 with ARDS, or Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, can attract pseudo bronchiectasis. While this condition resembles bronchiectasis, but it gets cured after some time rather than causing lung damage and a repetitive infection cycle.

What is the Most Common Cause of Bronchiectasis?

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is the most common condition that causes bronchiectasis in the United States and numerous other nations in the West. In India, tuberculosis (TB) is a common cause of this condition. The healthcare provider may fail to identify what causes bronchiectasis in several cases.

How is Bronchiectasis Diagnosed?

A medical professional will assess you and your health history and usually considers bronchiectasis symptoms, like the frequency of cough, bringing up of sputum or phlegm, and smoking habits. He will diligently listen to your lung's sound and check for similarities to bronchiectasis or other conditions. Medical professionals may also suggest getting imaging tests to study the lung structure.

What Tests Will be Done to Diagnose Bronchiectasis?

Your healthcare professional will conduct several tests to determine bronchiectasis and rule out the chances of other severe symptoms. These include:

• X-ray or CT scan: The imaging tests will take pictures of your lungs to check for damaged airways.
• Genetic testing: This involves blood or bodily fluid samples for determining diseases.
• Blood and phlegm tests: The provider will take samples of your mucus and blood to identify possible infection for bronchiectasis.
• Lung function examination: This test checks the working capacity of your lungs. It involves breathing into a device to measure lung function.
• Sweat test: People with the possibility of having CF undergo sweat tests for bronchiectasis. The provider will make your leg or arm sweat and test your sample for Cystic Fibrosis.
• Bronchoscopy: In specific cases, your healthcare provider may want to check your air passages with bronchoscopy. If you have bronchiectasis symptoms, the provider will use a long tube called a bronchoscope with a camera and light at its end and will use it to discover and eliminate anything clogging your air passages and collect pus and mucus samples for testing.

How is Bronchiectasis Treated?

One cannot entirely cure bronchiectasis, but you can find treatment for the symptoms.

A widely-used bronchiectasis treatment is by removing excessive mucus and combating infection. Considering how severe your condition is, the healthcare provider may prescribe physical therapy or medications.

Besides bronchiectasis therapies, you can utilise medical tools for removing mucus. For people who have bronchiectasis due to an underlying condition, curing such a condition will help improve the symptoms. Your provider may also suggest surgery for individuals with a minute bronchiectasis area.

What Treatments Are Used for Bronchiectasis?

Your provider may use the following methods to treat bronchiectasis:

• Physical therapy: The provider may use chest percussion and postural drainage bronchiectasis therapies to remove and loosen any mucus in your lungs. Here, the breathing exercises will help unblock your bronchial tubes.
• Antibiotics: Bacterial infections are treatable using antibiotics. While individuals can use antibiotic pills, the healthcare provider may provide you with antibiotics via an intravenous (IV). It will directly supply the medication to the arteries. Sometimes, the patient consumes bronchiectasis antibiotics in inhaling form. The nebuliser will turn the inhaled medication into a breathable mist.
• Mucolytics & expectorant: Another bronchiectasis treatment uses these medications to make the mucus runny and easy to cough. These are over-the-counter medications available for you to purchase.
• Medical devices: OPEP (Oscillating Positive Expiratory Pressure) devices and percussive vests help separate and withdraw mucus from the lungs. These are effective bronchiectasis therapies.

The best treatment will help you lower inflammation, eradicate bacterial growth, and remove infected mucus.

What Foods Should You Avoid if You Have Bronchiectasis?

Very little evidence supports the notion of food directly influencing your bronchiectasis symptoms. For example, many people suggest that not drinking milk will reduce the excess of mucus in the infected lungs. However, no research agrees with this statement.

Conversely, keep a good nutritional diet. People may notice a significant and unhealthy drop in weight. Others may have diet-related issues. Therefore, patients facing difficulty regarding healthy eating while suffering from bronchiectasis must consider a dietician.

How Can I Reduce My Risk of Bronchiectasis?

To mitigate the possibility of developing bronchiectasis symptoms, you must sustain the health of your lungs. For this, you should:

• Ensure you and your loved ones are well up on the suggested vaccination. Bronchiectasis can worsen with the flu, measles, pertussis, pneumococcal disease, etc.
• The medical health provider treats all the existing health issues, including those harming your lungs.
• Ensure you maintain the appointments and strictly follow the treatment plan. Discuss with your provider about any ineffective medications.
• Stay clear of vaping, smoking cigarettes, and breathing gases or fumes, which can damage your lungs and increase the risk of bronchiectasis.

What Can I Expect if I Have Bronchiectasis?

The damage caused because of bronchiectasis cannot be reversed. However, it is possible to manage the symptoms of bronchiectasis by following the strategies recommended by your healthcare provider.

Your expectations from this disease will depend on its severity and how well your body will respond to the treatment. Your condition will also depend on other health conditions you have. In bronchiectasis, you are supposed to take medications daily and practice physical therapies. In case of more severe cases, it will impact your daily life. you should

Complications of Bronchiectasis

Severe bronchiectasis may lead to life-threatening complications, which include:

• Respiratory failure: In case of lung complications, you would not be able to get enough oxygen for your tissues and blood, which may lead to respiratory failure.
• Severe bleeding: Your blood vessels in the airways may suffer damage, causing them to bleed severely. In such conditions, you may get blood while coughing.
• Antibiotic resistance: Because of antibiotics, you may catch an infection that is impossible to treat with medications.

What is the Life Expectancy for Bronchiectasis?

You can live a healthy and long life with bronchiectasis compared to those without proper treatment. However, smoking habits and low lung function can decrease the life expectancy of patients.

How Do I Take Care of Myself With Bronchiectasis?

If you learn how to manage your ongoing condition and overall health, it will be easy for you to take care of yourself with bronchiectasis:

• Quit smoking as it damages your lungs and increases your chances of complications from bronchiectasis. Take help from your healthcare provider to quit smoking.
• Involve in daily maintenance therapy recommended by your healthcare provider.
• Maintain a healthy diet.
• Stay hydrated. It will dilute your mucus and make it easy for you to clear your lungs.
• Do regular exercise to maintain the health of your lungs.
• Get a flu and pneumonia vaccine as suggested by your doctor.
• Maintaining good hygiene, like washing your hands regularly and avoiding infectious diseases.

When Should I See My Healthcare Provider About Bronchiectasis?

You must seek medical advice if you have a cough with mucus for several weeks or are short of breath. If you are diagnosed with bronchiectasis, you must contact your healthcare provider in case of:

• Infection signs like chills or fever
• Getting more trouble in breathing than usual.
• Feeling more tired than usual.
• Loss of weight unintentionally.
• Coughing more mucus, mucus with blood, or in case of yellowish or greenish mucus.
• Loss of appetite.

Conclusion

Bronchiectasis will never stop you from living a full life. You must be aware of bothersome bronchiectasis symptoms and how to deal with them. You may not be able to take care of every symptom, but some small changes in your life, like regular exercise, proper diet, etc, can improve the quality of your life. Accordingly, your healthcare provider may recommend a blood test or any other lab test to know the severity of bronchiectasis. With more than 4000+ centres across India, book your slot with Metropolis Lab for any kind of lab test with experienced specialists.