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Review
. 2018 Aug 9;13(Suppl 1):29.
doi: 10.1186/s40248-018-0142-7. eCollection 2018.

When and how ruling out cystic fibrosis in adult patients with bronchiectasis

Andrea Gramegna  1 , Stefano Aliberti  1 , Manuela Seia  2 , Luigi Porcaro  2 , Vera Bianchi  3 , Carlo Castellani  4 , Paola Melotti  4 , Claudio Sorio  5 , Enza Consalvo  2 , Elisa Franceschi  1 , Francesco Amati  1 , Martina Contarini  1 , Michele Gaffuri  6 , Luca Roncoroni  6 , Barbara Vigone  7 , Angela Bellofiore  1 , Cesare Del Monaco  1 , Martina Oriano  1   8 , Leonardo Terranova  9 , Maria Francesca Patria  9 , Paola Marchisio  9 , Baroukh M Assael  1 , Francesco Blasi  1
Affiliations
Review

When and how ruling out cystic fibrosis in adult patients with bronchiectasis

Andrea Gramegna et al. Multidiscip Respir Med. .

Abstract

Background: Bronchiectasis is the final result of different processes and most of the guidelines advocate for a careful evaluation of those etiologies which might be treated or might change patients' management, including cystic fibrosis (CF).

Main body: CFTR mutations have been reported with higher frequency in bronchiectasis population. Although ruling out CF is considered as a main step for etiological screening in bronchiectasis, CF testing lacks of a standardized approach both from a research and clinical point of view. In this review a list of most widely used tests in CF is provided.

Conclusions: Exclusion of CF is imperative for patients with bronchiectasis and CFTR testing should be implemented in usual screening for investigating bronchiectasis etiology. Physicians taking care of bronchiectasis patients should be aware of CFTR testing and its limitations in the adult population. Further studies on CFTR expression in human lung and translational research might elucidate the possible role of CFTR in the pathogenesis of bronchiectasis.

Keywords: Bronchiectasis; CFTR; CFTR gene analysis; Etiological screening; Sweat test.

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Conflict of interest statement

Not applicable.Not applicable.The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Prof. Francesco Blasi is Editor-in-Chief of Multidisciplinary Respiratory Medicine, whereas Prof. Stefano Aliberti is Associate editor of Multidisciplinary Respiratory Medicine and Guest Editor of the Supplement on Bronchiectasis.Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
When and how testing patients with bronchiectasis for CF
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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