To analyze the characteristics of respiratory pathogen spectrum in adultpatients with acute exacerbation of bronchiectasis and its correlation with the severity of disease.
During the follow-up period, there were 53 cases of acute exacerbation events and a total of 91 case-times (up to 5 times per patient). The positive rates of sputumvirus and nasal swab virus in patients with acute exacerbation were significantly higher than those in patients with stable period [39.6% (36/91) vs. 15.1% (8/53) , 45.1% (41/91) vs. 9.4% (5/53) ], and there were significant differences ( χ2=8.460, 13.621, P<0.05). However, the total positive rate of sputum bacterial culture in acute exacerbation and stable period had no significant difference ( P>0.05). The positive rate of Pseudomonas aeruginosa [0, 34.6% (9/26) ,52.4% (22/42) ] and rhinovirus [8.7% (2/23) ,3.8% (1/26) ,23.8% (10/42) ] in sputum among mild patients (16 cases, 23 case-times), moderate patients (16 cases, 26 case-times) and severe patients (21 cases, 42 case-times) in acute exacerbation stage were significant differences ( P<0.05). The levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin (IL)-8 in patients in mixed infection of bacteria and viruses group in acute exacerbation stage were significantly higher than those in negative group, bacteria group and viruses group [CRP (45.6 ± 23.0) mg/L vs. (11.2 ± 2.7) , (32.3 ± 10.2) , (21.3 ± 8.0) mg/L; IL-8 (9.0 ± 2.5) ng/L vs. (1.5 ± 0.9) , (1.8 ± 1.1) , (2.0 ± 1.3) ng/L], and there were significant differences ( F=23.012, 9.926, P<0.05). The hospitalization rate of patients in mixed infection of bacteria and viruses group was significantly higher than that in negative group, bacteria group and viruses group [29.6% (8/27) vs. 0, 16.7% (4/24) , 1/18] , and there were significant differences ( χ2=7.691, P<0.05).