title: Primary care summary of the British Thoracic Society Guideline on the management of non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis.
abstract: The British Thoracic Society (BTS) has recently published a guideline for the management of non-cystic fibrosis (non-CF) bronchiectasis in children and adults. This paper summarises the key recommendations applicable to the primary care setting. The key points are: • Think of the diagnosis of bronchiectasis in adults and children who present with a chronic productive cough or unexplained haemoptysis, and in children with asthma which responds poorly to treatment; • High resolution computed tomography (HRCT) scanning is needed to confirm the diagnosis • Sputum culture should be obtained at the start of an exacerbation prior to initiating treatment with antibiotics; Treatment should be started whilst awaiting the sputum result and should be continued for 14 days; • Patients with bronchiectasis have significant morbidity. Management in primary care is aimed at improving morbidity, and includes; patient education, treatment and monitoring, as well as appropriate referral to secondary care including assessment for long term antibiotics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, Royal Infirmary and University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. adam.hill2@nhs.net
authors.forename: Adam T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pasteur
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cornford
authors.forename: Sally
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Welham
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bilton
mesh_terms: D001987:Bronchiectasis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*; D003550:Cystic Fibrosis; D019468:Disease Management; D006801:Humans; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D012955:Societies, Medical; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*