Bronchiectasis in severe asthma: Clinical features and outcomes

Abstract

Background: Bronchiectasis is increasingly being identified in patients with severe asthma and could contribute to disease severity.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of bronchiectasis in a population of patients with severe asthma and to better characterize the clinical features of these patients and their outcomes.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical files of 184 subjects with confirmed severe asthma who had undergone high-resolution thoracic computed tomography and compared the characteristics and outcomes of subjects with and without bronchiectasis.

Results: Bronchiectasis was identified in 86 patients (47%). These patients had concomitant hypersensitivity to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (odds ratio [OR] 2.24, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.00-5.03) and gastroesophageal reflux disease (OR 1.89, 95% CI 1.05-3.41) more frequently than subjects without bronchiectasis, but had less atopic dermatitis (OR 0.188, 95% CI 0.04-0.88). Subjects with bronchiectasis were more frequently hospitalized for asthma exacerbations (OR 2.09, 95% CI 1.08-4.05) and had higher blood eosinophil levels (464 vs 338; P = .005) than subjects without bronchiectasis.

Conclusion: Our study suggests that in subjects with severe asthma, the presence of bronchiectasis is associated with more frequent hospitalizations, concomitant gastroesophageal reflux disease, hypersensitivity to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and higher blood eosinophil counts. Bronchiectasis could represent an additional phenotypic feature of severe eosinophilic asthma.