Prognosis of patients with bronchiectasis receiving long-term oxygen therapy.

OBJECTIVES: Long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) for bronchiectasis is recommended using the same eligibility criteria as for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); however, the evidence supporting LTOT in bronchiectasis is limited, and no studies have evaluated the prognosis of the disease in these patients. The aim of the present study was to investigate the characteristics and prognosis of bronchiectasis in patients receiving LTOT. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included patients with bronchiectasis and COPD who started LTOT between April 2011 and September 2022. Patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD) who started LTOT after June 2020 while receiving antifibrotic therapy were also included. We compared baseline characteristics and survival times among patients with bronchiectasis, COPD, and ILD. Furthermore, among patients with bronchiectasis, we compared these parameters between those with nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) culture-positive and NTM culture-negative results. RESULTS: A total of 93 consecutive patients with bronchiectasis were newly initiated on LTOT. Compared with patients with COPD and ILD, those with bronchiectasis had a significantly lower BMI, %FVC and %FEV. Survival was significantly shorter in patients with bronchiectasis (664 [372-1078] days) than in those with COPD (1008 [590-1722] days), whereas no significant difference was observed compared to ILD (669 [208-989] days). Patients who were NTM culture-positive (405 [156-646] days) had a significantly shorter survival than those who were NTM culture-negative (946 [573-1380] days). CONCLUSIONS: The prognosis of bronchiectasis in patients was extremely poor, worse than that of COPD and comparable to that of ILD.