Introduction: Non cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis is an uncommon respiratory disease and was described as a rare imaging feature of COVID-19 infection, but no published studies are reporting the clinical course and outcome of coexisting COVID-19 and confirmed cases of bronchiectasis during acute stage. The aim of this study was to assess the course and outcome of COVID-19 infection in bronchiectasis patient.
Patients and methods: A cross-sectional study including 411 COVID-19 confirmed cases that were examined by high resolution computed tomography of the chest during acute phase (4 weeks) of the infection. They were divided into Group A: COVID-19 patients without bronchiectasis (n=400) and Group B included COVID-19 patients with preexisting clinical and radiologic evidence of bronchiectasis (n=11).
Results: Patients with preexisting chronic bronchiectasis (Grup B) had significantly higher cough score, frequency of colored sputum and mMRC score, respiratory distress (p< 0.001) and respiratory failure (p= 0.02) than those without bronchiectasis. They also had the higher frequency of ICU’s admission (p< 0.001), need to non-invasive (p= 0.01), and invasive mechanical ventilation (p= <0.001), duration of mechanical ventilation, ICU’s stay and overall hospital stay (p<0.001). Death rate was also statistically significantly higher in Group B compared to Group A (p= 0.04).
Conclusion: Concomitant bronchiectasis increases disease burden in COVID-19 patients. It increased the severity of presenting symptoms and was associated with worse clinical outcome (ICU admission, need for ventilator support) and mortality.