Despite its hazardous symptoms, bronchiectasis is too often under diagnosed by clinicians, as cited by several sources, including the University of Chicago Medicine.
According to a recent study commissioned, under-diagnosis may be due largely to its grouping under COPD. “The clinical features of the COPDs frequently overlap,” wrote Jane M. Braverman, PhD, in the article “Airway Clearance Indications in Bronchiectasis: An Overview.”
Contributing further to underdiagnosis is the fact that bronchiectasis is a manifestation of other airway diseases such as cystic fibrosis, meaning that bronchiectasis may simply be overlooked by a diagnosis of severe symptoms of cystic fibrosis.
