Bronchiectasis caused by pulmonary tuberculosis: The epidemiology, clinical presentations and the differences from non-tuberculosis-caused bronchiectasis

RATIONALE Because of the highest absolute numbers of tuberculosis (TB) patients (Lange C, et al. Eur Respir J. 2010;36:714), the number of hospitalization of bronchiectasis patients caused by TB was growing fast in China. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed the records of 6977 patients with bronchiectasis in 17 years in the largest single center. Follow-up have done only on patients from 2009 to 2011. RESULTS Adult patients who diagnosed as bronchiectasis at the hospital between 1995 and 2011 were recruited to this study. The amount of hospitalized patients with bronchiectasis in 2011 was 9.3 fold of that in 1995. The number was increase very fast during the seventeen years. The data tallied with the situation of pulmonary TB in China. 69.21% (4892 in 6977) patients were original from countryside. The main causes of bronchiectasis were pulmonary TB (31.17%), bacterial infection and pertussis. The peak age ranges of post-TB bronchiectasis were 30 to 39 and 60 to 69. Patients with post-TB bronchiectasis prone to have haemoptysis but less sputum. The X ray of patients with post-TB bronchiectasis represented upper lobes injury of the lung. Less pseudomonas aeruginosa culture positive and less acute exacerbation were recorded in post-TB bronchiectasis patients from the data of available follow-up patients. CONCLUSIONS The main cause of bronchiectasis in China was pulmonary TB, possiblely because of the grim pulmonary TB epidemic situation. Post-TB bronchiectasis patients have marked different clinical features and prognosis, compared with non-TB bronchiectasis.