What are the main symptoms of bronchiectasis?

summary

Bronchiectasis is due to chronic suppurative inflammation and fibrosis of the bronchus and its surrounding lung tissue, which destroys the muscle and elastic tissue of the bronchial wall, leading to the deformation and persistent expansion of the bronchus. The typical symptoms are chronic cough, cough with a lot of purulent sputum and repeated hemoptysis. The main pathogenic factors were bronchial infection, obstruction and traction, and some of them were congenital genetic factors. Most patients had history of measles, pertussis or bronchopneumonia. What are the main symptoms of bronchiectasis? Let's talk about it

What are the main symptoms of bronchiectasis?

The course of bronchiectasis is usually chronic and can occur at any age. He has a history of measles, pertussis or pneumonia after influenza, or has a history of pulmonary tuberculosis, endobronchial tuberculosis, pulmonary fibrosis, etc. The typical symptoms are chronic cough, cough with a lot of purulent sputum and repeated hemoptysis. Expectoration was most common in the morning, evening and bedtime, reaching 100-400 ml per day. Patients feel relaxed when expectoration is unobstructed; If the sputum drainage is not smooth, the chest tightness and systemic symptoms will be aggravated.

Sputum is mostly yellow green and pus like. When combined with anaerobic infection, it has bad smell. It can collect all day phlegm in glass bottles. After a few hours, it can be divided into 3 layers: the upper layer is foam, the middle layer is yellow green turbid pus, and the lower layer is the necrotic tissue sediment. 90% patients often have hemoptysis, varying degrees. In some patients, hemoptysis may be the first and only chief complaint, clinically known as "dry bronchiectasis", common in tuberculous bronchiectasis, lesions in the upper lobe of the bronchus.

If repeated secondary infection, patients have fever, night sweats, fatigue, loss of appetite, weight loss, etc. When bronchiectasis complicated with compensatory or obstructive emphysema, the patient may have dyspnea, shortness of breath or cyanosis, and pulmonary heart disease and cardiopulmonary failure may appear in the late stage.

matters needing attention

The pathogenic bacteria of bronchiectasis patients are mostly gram-negative bacilli, common Haemophilus influenzae, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and so on. Antibiotics can be selected for these pathogenic bacteria, sputum culture and drug sensitivity test should be done as far as possible to guide the treatment. Patients with underlying diseases (such as ciliary immobility) can be treated with antibiotics for a long time according to their condition.