Clinical course of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in patients with bronchiectasis

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected the whole world and caused the death of more than 6 million people. The disease has been observed to have a more severe course in patients with chronic lung diseases. There are limited data regarding COVID-19 in patients with bronchiectasis. The aim of this article is to investigate the course of COVID-19 and factors affecting the clinical outcome in patients with bronchiectasis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study was conducted using the Turkish Adult Bronchiectasis Database (TEBVEB) to which 25 centers in T and uuml;rkiye contributed between March 2019 and January 2022. The database consisted of 1035 patients, and COVID-19-related data were recorded for 606 patients. RESULTS: One hundred nineteen (19.6%) of the bronchiectasis patients (64 female, mean age 57.3 +/- 13.9) had COVID-19. Patients with bronchiectasis who developed COVID-19 more frequently had other comorbidities (P = .034). They also more frequently had cystic bronchiectasis (P = .009) and their Bronchiectasis Severity Index was significantly higher (P = .019). Eighty-two (68.9%) of the patients who had COVID-19 were followed up in the outpatient clinic, 27 (22.7%) in the inpatient ward and 10 (8.4%) patients in the intensive care unit. There tended to be a higher percentage of males among patients admitted to the hospital (P = .073);similarly, the mean age of the patients admitted to the hospital was also higher (60.8 vs 55.8 years for the outpatients), but these differences did not reach statistical significance (P = .071). CONCLUSION: In conclusion, this study showed that severe bronchiectasis, presence of cystic bronchiectasis and worse Bronchiectasis Severity Index are associated with the development of COVID-19, but not with the severity of infection.