This is the age of bronchiectasis – First World Bronchiectasis Conference took place in Hannover

24.10.2016

Bronchiectasis is the pathological end result of a number of heterogeneous disease processes. The vicious circle hypothesis proposes that impaired host defences lead to persistent bacterial infection which stimulates chronic neutrophilic inflammation, which together with bacterial products damages lung tissue, further impairing the defences, and perpetuating the circle.

For many centuries, bronchiectasis had been a well-known disease, well described in the literature. Although patients with bronchiectasis suffer severely and their quality of life decreases substantially, the disease has faded into obscurity for many years. This is manifested in today’s glaring lack of data and randomized studies.

In recent years, however, bronchiectasis has regained attention. The First World Bronchiectasis Conference(www.world-bronchiectasis-conference.com), which took place in Hannover, Germany on July 6-8, brought together more than 250 physicians, scientists, patients and industry representatives from more than 25 countries to jointly discuss how research should be fostered and structured in the coming years.

An elaborated conference report and all abstracts were published in the October issue of the German journal Pneumologie. A video-clipping which was filmed during the conference can be found on YouTube.

From July 6-8, 2017, the second World Bronchiectasis Conference will be held in Milan, Italy (www.world-bronchiectasis-conference.org).

Text: BREATH/AZ

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