Etiology of Bronchiectasis in the World: Data from the Published National and International Registries

Abstract

Bronchiectasis is the third leading chronic inflammatory disease of the airway caused by dozens of pulmonary and extra-pulmonary diseases. Infection by pathogenic microorganisms is very common. We aimed to analyze, for the first time in the literature, the etiology of bronchiectasis throughout the world via data published in national and international registries. A bibliographic search was carried out in PubMed and Web of Science. Seven studies were included, with a total of 27,258 patients from 33 countries of four continents. The most frequent cause of bronchiectasis was post-infectious: 30.5% (range: 19.1–40.4%), followed by idiopathic: 28.7% (18.5–38.1%). Post-tuberculous bronchiectasis accounted for 14.1% (1.8–35.5%), while etiologies associated with COPD and asthma comprised 7% (3.4–10.9%) and 5.2% (2.5–7.8%). In conclusion, there was a high degree of heterogeneity in the relative percentages of the main causes of bronchiectasis in the world, although post-infectious and idiophatic bronchiectasis continue to be the most frequent causes.