Prevalence of bronchiectasis among children less than twelve years of age in kurnool district

Abstract

Background: In the modern era, the global burden of childhood Bronchiectasis remains poorly captured by the literature. However, bronchiectasis is essentially a disease of poverty. Clinical trials across multiple countries are essential to further improve interventional and clinical management of bronchiectasis. Hence, the present study taken up and studied the prevalence of bronchiectasis among children less than twelve years of age in kurnool district, India. Materials and Methods: A descriptive study was design with 96 patients with bronchiectasis from Viswabharathi hospital medical college and all the children were followed up clinically and radiological findings. The details of these children were collected through a structured proforma and statistical analysis was done. Results: Age groups below twelve years of age with the median age at presentation was 4.5 yrs and Male children (51.1%) being slightly, occurs predominantly in lower socio-economic population (93%) and urban population (55%) being more affected. The common symptoms in these children are cough (100%), fever (65%) and breathlessness (53%). Cough with expectoration (56.3%) and hemoptysis (30.2%) was predominant in above six years of age. Conclusion: we present epidemiological data for bronchiectasis in Kurnool, A.P., India that will be important to inform quality improvement efforts in India as well as future clinical trial design and disease understanding. KEY WORDS: Breathlessness, Bronchiectasis, Cough, expectoration, fever, Hemoptysis.