TY - JOUR T1 - The relationship between airway bacterial load and airways inflammation in stable non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 38 IS - Suppl 55 SP - 1927 AU - James D. Chalmers AU - Pallavi Mandal AU - Brian McHugh AU - Maeve Smith AU - Cathy Doherty AU - John R. Govan AU - Adam T. Hill Y1 - 2011/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/1927.abstract N2 - Objective: To investigate the relationship between airway bacterial load and markers of airways inflammation in stable patients with bronchiectasis.Methods: 302 patients with non-CF bronchiectasis confirmed by HRCT were enrolled. At 6 monthly review, spontaneous sputum samples were processed to determine bacterial load, expressed as log10 colony forming units/ml (cfu/ml). Sputum sol was analysed for myeloperoxidase (MPO) and neutrophil elastase elastase activity. Interleukin-8 (IL-8), Interleukin 1-beta (IL-1β) and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) were measured by ELISA.Results: 67 patients (22.1%) of patients grew no pathogens. Pathogenic micro-organisms were obtained in 77.9% of patients, most frequently Haemophilus influenzae (37.4% of isolates), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (20.4%), Staphylococcus aureus (13.2%), Streptococcus pneumoniae (11.9%) and Moraxella catarrhalis (10.6%).Airway inflammation increased progressively with increasing bacterial load. Statistically significant differences were observed, when compared to patients with no pathogens, at bacterial loads above 1×106cfu/ml for MPO (p=0.01), neutrophil elastase activity (p=0.006) and IL-8 (p=0.02), and above 1×107 for TNF-α (p=0.04) and above 1×105 for IL-1β (p=0.003).Figure 1. *p<0.05, **p<0.0001.Conclusion: There is a direct relationship between airway bacterial load and the degree of airway inflammation in stable bronchiectasis. ER -