The importance of phenotyping bronchiectasis

Abstract

Bronchiectasis is considered to be one of the most heterogeneous respiratory diseases due to both multiple etiological conditions and variable clinical manifestations. This huge heterogeneity is one of the main reasons for disease complexity, and thus, there is a need to identify clinical phenotypes which have specific therapeutic and follow-up indications as in other respiratory diseases [i.e. chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or asthma]. Unfortunately, identifying phenotypes of bronchiectasis is not an easy task, and so far, attempts to link aetiology to clinical severity have failed.