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Toggle: English / SpanishBronchiectasis - Symptom
Alternative Names
Acquired bronchiectasis; Congenital bronchiectasis
Symptoms:
Symptoms often develop gradually, and may occur months or years after the event that causes the bronchiectasis.
They may include:
- Bluish skin color
- Breath odor
- Chronic cough with large amounts of foul-smelling sputum
- Clubbing of fingers
- Coughing up blood
- Cough that gets worse when lying on one side
- Fatigue
- Paleness
- Shortness of breath that gets worse with exercise
- Weight loss
- Wheezing
Signs and tests:
When listening to the chest with a stethoscope, the doctor may hear small clicking, bubbling, wheezing, rattling, or other sounds, usually in the lower lobes of the lungs.
Tests may include:
- Aspergillosis precipitin test (to check for signs of the aspergillosis fungus)
- Alpha-1 antitrypsin blood test
- Chest x-ray
- Chest CT
- Sputum culture
- Complete blood count (CBC)
- Genetic testing, including sweat test for cystic fibrosis
- PPD skin test to check for a prior tuberculosis infection
- Serum immunoglobulin electrophoresis
- Reviewed last on: 9/15/2010
- David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc., and Denis Hadjiliadis, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
References
Iseman MD, Chan ED. Bronchiectasis. In: Mason RJ, Broaddus CV, Martin TR, et al. Murray & Nadel's Textbook of Respiratory Medicine. 5th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2010:chap 42.
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