bronchiectasis

1 8.6

A long-term lung disease where the airways stay wide and fill with mucus, making it hard to breathe

noun
/ˌbrɒŋkiˈɛktəsɪs/

Specialized

: bronquiectasia

Bronchiectasis is often caused by recurrent inflammation or infection of the airways, often beginning in childhood.
patients with bronchiectasis
risk of developing bronchiectasis
bronchiectasis causes

Examples

Patients diagnosed with bronchiectasis often experience persistent coughing and difficulty breathing due to mucus buildup.
High-dose antibiotic therapy should be given to patients with bronchiectasis at the start of a chest infection and continued for at least 10 days.

Academic text (2011)
Practice nurses can identify, refer, educate, and support patients with bronchiectasis, and should be alert to changes in their health status.

Academic text (2011)
Practice nurses who run asthma or COPD clinics may often encounter patients with bronchiectasis, which is difficult to distinguish from these other respiratory conditions.

Academic text (2011)
Chest x-rays do not diagnose bronchiectasis, but can exclude obvious localized lung disease.

Academic text (2011)
The doctor explained that bronchiectasis is a chronic condition that can lead to frequent lung infections.
To manage bronchiectasis, patients may require regular check-ups and specialized breathing exercises.

Surface Forms

bronchiectasis singular

bronchiectases plural

Morphology

bronchiectasis = bronchus + ectasis (opaque) = bronchi + ectasis

The term is composed of medical combining forms ('bronchi-' + 'ectasis') that are unlikely to be interpretable by an average B1 learner without medical knowledge.

Etymology

Bronchiectasis comes from two parts: bronch- meaning 'airway', the same root you see in bronchial and bronchitis, and -ectasis meaning 'widening' or 'stretching'. So bronchiectasis describes airways that have become widened, which explains the mucus buildup and breathing problems.