Raya Cohen, Michal Shteinberg
European Respiratory Journal 2024 63: 2400068; DOI: 10.1183/13993003.00068-2024 

Extract

Exacerbations of chronic airway disease are well-described phenomena across diseases, including bronchiectasis (BE), whether secondary to cystic fibrosis (CF) or not. Exacerbations are frequent in CF and BE: in recent registries, 20% of children and 70% of adults with CF [1] and 75% of adults with BE [2] experienced at least one exacerbation in the previous year. In most diseases, the diagnosis of an exacerbation is made based on clinical criteria: deterioration of symptoms (CF and BE) and pulmonary function (CF) [3, 4]. The immediate initiating event(s) of an exacerbation is not completely elucidated, despite several studies exploring changes in biomarkers between exacerbation and stability [5].