Ruxandra Ulmeanu1 , Ruxandra-Mioara Rajnoveanu2 , Sabina-Antonela Antoniu3 , Lavinia Davidescu4 , Milena-Adina Man5 , Ana-Florica Chis5 , Nicoleta-Stefania Motoc5 , Armand-Gabriel Rajnoveanu6 2Department of Palliative Care, Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
3Department of Interdisciplinary Medicine, Grigore T Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Medicine II & L Boiculese Department, Iasi, Romania
4Department of Pneumophtysiology, Oradea University, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Oradea, Romania
5Department of Pneumology, Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
6Department of Occupational Medicine, Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Abstract
The overlap between asthma and bronchiectasis (BE) is a challenging topic not only for researchers but also for clinicians. The aim of this review was to explore the latest insight of literature focused on the association between asthma and BE from the epidemiological, clinical, functional, and therapeutical perspectives. The literature search included papers published in English in the PUBMED database in the past 10 years. From a total of 233 findings, after eliminating those nonrelated to the topic and after using additional sources, 32 relevant articles were considered. The main results of the present review highlighted that when the two conditions are associated, patients have poorer clinical outcomes, greater disease severity and exacerbation rates, increased hospitalization trend, and risk for pulmonary complications, compared with each disease alone. As future directions, the need to identify both conditions at an early stage and to offer personalized management of these different phenotypes are goals to be further addressed.
