Abstract
Objective Secretion clearance is advocated in non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis, but is often neglected in clinical treatment. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of inhaled 0.9% normal saline by ultrasonic nebuliser with warming (UNW) in stable non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis patients with purulent sputum.
Methods 27 stable patients were enrolled in a randomised crossover trial comprising 3 months of daily UNW aerosol therapy compared with 3 months of daily oral expectorant treatment. The outcomes were quality of life (assessed via the Leicester cough questionnaire (LCQ)), sputum characteristics, pulmonary function, 6-min walk distance (6MWD) and acute exacerbation frequency.
Results Compared with baseline, the sputum viscosity, sputum colour, LCQ score and 6MWD were significantly improved with UNW (p<0.05), and the improvements in sputum colour, LCQ score, 6MWD and inspirational capacity with UNW were significantly better than those achieved via treatment with oral expectorant (p<0.05). There were no significant differences between treatments in pulmonary function, sputum cytology classification and inflammatory factors of sputum.
Conclusion UNW aerosol therapy in non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis has small yet significant benefits. However, UNW does not improve the degree of inflammation.
Abstract
Curative effect of ultrasonic nebulisation with warming for stable non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis patients with sputum: a randomised crossover study http://bit.ly/2RjyfET
Footnotes
This study is registered at www.chictr.org.cn with identifier number ChiCTR-IPR-15006911. If other researchers need the research data, they can contact the author to obtain it by e-mail.
Conflict of interest: L. Zhong has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: Y. Xiong has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: Z. Zheng reports grants from National Science and Technology Major Project and a project of National Natural Science Foundation of China during the conduct of the study. In addition, Dr Zheng has a patent ZL201220412530.3 licensed.
Conflict of interest: N. Liu has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: J. Hu has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: F. Yang has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: R. Chen has nothing to disclose.
Support statement: This study was funded by National Science and Technology Major Project (No. 2016YFC1304600) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81670041). Funding information for this article has been deposited with the Crossref Funder Registry.
- Received May 24, 2019.
- Accepted November 27, 2019.
- Copyright ©ERS 2020
This article is open access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Licence 4.0.