Bronchiectasis is a fairly common disease in recent years in all ages, especially adolescents. Thanks to vaccines to treat respiratory infections, the number of people with bronchiectasis has decreased. To know the causes and methods of diagnosing this disease, please refer to the following article.
1. How is bronchiectasis understood?
The bronchi are a part of the respiratory system, which plays an important role in carrying air to the lungs. In our body, the bronchi will start at the division of the trachea (4th and 5th thoracic vertebrae), then divide into small branches that go deep into the lungs and form the bronchial tree. In particular, the left bronchus and right bronchus will have the role of carrying air into the lungs.
Bronchiectasis is irreversible dilation of one or more bronchi with destruction of the bronchial wall. Understandably, the bronchial tubes located in the lungs are damaged, repeated many times due to bacteria or mucus that lose the elasticity of the bronchial tubes. Over time, bronchial dilation is difficult to recover. More dangerous, the bronchi are dilated into the fovea, which will lead to chronic respiratory infections, which adversely affect the health and life of the patient.
2. Factors that cause bronchiectasis
There are many causes of bronchiectasis in humans such as congenital, genetic and acquired from lung and respiratory infections.
Due to congenital diseases
If people are born with poor peripheral lung development, it can cause dilated bronchi. Besides, if you were born with Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia Syndrome, it also causes bronchiectasis along with other diseases such as sinusitis, allergic rhinitis, etc. … Because this syndrome often disrupts the ability to clear mucus, so the inflammation in the bronchi is repeated many times, causing the dilated bronchial tubes to be difficult to recover.
Some people are born with Mounier-Kuhn syndrome, when having this syndrome, there will be defects in the connective tissue in the bronchial walls, causing the trachea to enlarge, leading to bronchiectasis. In addition, if anyone has congenital yellow nail syndrome, they are also susceptible to this disease, because the decreased production of the lymphatic system causes primary lymphedema.
Due to lung and respiratory tract infections
Bronchiectasis also occurs in people with long-term respiratory related diseases such as respiratory tract infections, sinusitis, rhinitis, etc. Besides, if the patient has a history of infectious diseases Lungs such as pneumonia, whooping cough, measles, fungal infections, etc. will also cause inflammation in the bronchi. The disease recurs many times, the mucus is stagnant for a long time, causing the muscle fibers of the bronchial tubes to expand. In particular, when you have lung or respiratory infections, you will also have a cough with sputum, putting pressure on the lungs and bronchi, making bronchiectasis worse.
Some other reasons
Dilated bronchial tube disease also easily occurs in people who are often exposed to toxic environments with many chemicals, dust, and pollution. If exposed to these air environments for a long time, it will cause damage, ulceration and erosion of the bronchi or lead to a cough with sputum, creating pressure in the bronchial lumen, which leads to bronchiectasis. manage. This is also the leading agent that destroys the bronchial wall in humans, causing many dangerous disease complications.
In addition, people with weakened immune systems such as people with HIV/AIDS will also be prone to bronchiectasis. In particular, for infants with a weak immune system, a deficiency of blood Gama-Globulin will also easily have dilated bronchial tubes.
3. What are the symptoms of bronchiectasis?
Bronchiectasis will have many different manifestations, this depends on the severity - mild of the disease. However, most patients with the disease have some key symptoms such as:
- Cough with phlegm is frequent and lasts for months without stopping. The patient has a persistent cough and often produces a lot of purulent sputum. Some people also cough up blood, especially when coughing up blood, often accompanied by fever, this is a sign of an acute infection in the bronchi.
- There is a different breathing sound compared to normal people, the breathing sound is usually short and sounds like a hiss, an annoying wheezing sound.
Feeling pain and tightness in the chest is also a common symptom of the disease.
Having a long-term illness, whether adults or children, there are signs of fatigue, lethargy, loss of appetite, weight loss.
4. Diagnostic methods
Clinical examination
The patient will be considered for common symptoms such as: chronic cough, sputum with purulent mucus every day, fever and coughing up blood, ... Besides, the doctor is also suitable to use a stethoscope to check the lungs, if If the patient hears a hissing sound in the lungs, the patient is breathing shallowly, the patient will suspect bronchiectasis. However, this is just an inaccurate conclusion based on the symptoms of the disease to guide the use of subclinical testing methods to be 100% sure of the outcome of the disease.
Preclinical examination
Patients will be consulted to conduct paraclinical examination methods including:
Chest X-ray: If the patient has bronchiectasis with symptoms of cough, purulent sputum, the images taken from the X-ray will help see the abnormal manifestations on the chest X-ray such as: inflammatory foci in the lungs, blood vessels increase in intensity due to inflammation around the bronchial tubes, etc.
CT scan (thoracic computed tomography): This is the best imaging method to confirm whether a patient has bronchiectasis and to locate dilated bronchial branches.
Besides, we also conduct a number of other investigations such as: measuring the patient's respiratory function and conducting blood count tests, quantification of IgG, M and A, etc.