How Can Bronchiectasis Be Prevented?
To prevent bronchiectasis, it’s important to prevent the lung infections and lung damage that can cause it.
Childhood vaccines for measles and whooping cough prevent infections related to these illnesses. These vaccines also reduce complications from these infections, such as bronchiectasis.
Avoiding toxic fumes, gases, smoke, and other harmful substances also can help protect your lungs.
Proper treatment of lung infections in children also may help preserve lung function and prevent lung damage that can lead to bronchiectasis.
Stay alert to keep children (and adults) from inhaling small objects (such as pieces of toys and food that might stick in a small airway). If you think you, your child, or someone else has inhaled a small object, seek prompt medical care.
In some cases, treating the underlying cause of bronchiectasis can slow or prevent its progression.
Who Is at Risk for Bronchiectasis?
People who have conditions that damage the lungs or increase the risk of lung infections are at risk for bronchiectasis. Such conditions include:
- Cystic fibrosis. This disease leads to almost half of the cases of bronchiectasis in the United States.
- Immunodeficiency disorders, such as common variable immunodeficiency and, less often, HIV and AIDS.
- Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis. This is an allergic reaction to a fungus called aspergillus. The reaction causes swelling in the airways.
- Disorders that affect cilia function, such as primary ciliary dyskinesia. Cilia are small, hair-like structures that line your airways. They help clear mucus (a slimy substance) out of your airways.
Bronchiectasis can develop at any age. Overall, two-thirds of people who have the condition are women. However, in children, the condition is more common in boys than in girls.
What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Bronchiectasis?
The initial airway damage that leads to bronchiectasis often begins in childhood. However, signs and symptoms may not appear until months or even years after you start having repeated lung infections.
The most common signs and symptoms of bronchiectasis are:
- A daily cough that occurs over months or years
- Daily production of large amounts of sputum (spit). Sputum, which you cough up and spit out, may contain mucus (a slimy substance), trapped particles, and pus.
- Shortness of breath and wheezing (a whistling sound when you breathe)
- Chest pain
- Clubbing (the flesh under your fingernails and toenails gets thicker)
If your doctor listens to your lungs with a stethoscope, he or she may hear abnormal lung sounds.
Over time, you may have more serious symptoms. You may cough up blood or bloody mucus and feel very tired. Children may lose weight or not grow at a normal rate.
Complications of Bronchiectasis
Severe bronchiectasis can lead to other serious health conditions, such as respiratory failure and atelectasis.
Respiratory failure is a condition in which not enough oxygen passes from your lungs into your blood. The condition also can occur if your lungs can’t properly remove carbon dioxide (a waste gas) from your blood.
Respiratory failure can cause shortness of breath, rapid breathing, and air hunger (feeling like you can’t breathe in enough air). In severe cases, signs and symptoms may include a bluish color on your skin, lips, and fingernails; confusion; and sleepiness.
Atelectasis is a condition in which one or more areas of your lungs collapse or don’t inflate properly. As a result, you may feel short of breath. Your heart rate and breathing rate may increase, and your skin and lips may turn blue.
If bronchiectasis is so advanced that it affects all parts of your airways, it may cause heart failure. Heart failure is a condition in which the heart can’t pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs.
The most common signs and symptoms of heart failure are shortness of breath or trouble breathing, tiredness, and swelling in the ankles, feet, legs, abdomen, and veins in the neck.
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