الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The present study included 25 patients proved to have bronchiectasis by HRCT and were compared with 10 healthy non-smoker volunteers with no comorbid diseases. All the patients with associated lung cancer, interstitial lung disease with traction bronchiectasis, active TB, and extrathoracic malignancies were excluded from the study.
The aim of this study was to compare serum levels of IL-8 and CRP during an exacerbation of bronchiectasis before treatment and after one week of treatment.
The present study revealed the following:
There was no statistical significant difference between cases and controls regarding the demographic parameters except for the PFT with evidence of obstruction in 56% and restrictive pulmonary functions in 44%.
For all the patients, productive cough was the main presentation at bronchiectasis exacerbation in 100% of the patients that was associated with changes in the color and/or sputum amount in 80% followed by dyspnea in 88% and chest pain in 32%.
CXR was diagnostic in 88% of the patients; however, HRCT was more accurate in the diagnosis of bronchiectasis as 100% of the patients had bronchiectatic changes in CT where cystic bronchiectasis is the most common type (92%) compared to the tubular and combined bronchiectasis (4% each).
There was significant difference in CRP values between cases on admission and controls; as the median CRP (IQR) among the cases on admission was 10 (2.75 – 30) mg/L; while among the control was 2 (2-3) mg/L (p= 0.0047).
There was no significant difference between the levels of CRP in the current study before and after treatment of the bronchiectasis exacerbation (p= 0.93).
CRP Cutoff value of ≥ 4 mg/L had a sensitivity of 68 % and specificity of 90 % for discriminating acute exacerbation of bronchiectasis from healthy state
Levels of serum IL-8 was found to be higher in the patient group; however when compared to the control group a statistically significant difference was not detected (p= 0.688).
There was no significant difference between the levels of IL-8 in the current study before and after treatment of the exacerbation (p= 0.516).
IL-8 Cutoff value is > 52.14 mg/L and has a poor sensitivity of 36 % and good specificity of 80 % in discriminating acute exacerbation of bronchiectasis.
The level CRP of the cases correlated significantly with IL-8 irrespective of the study point of time (r= 0.294, p= 0.039).
There was a significant correlation between the level of IL-8 either on admission or after 1 week of treatment and total WBCs (r=0.529, p= 0.01 and r=0.432, p=0.034 respectively).
There was a significant negative correlation between the level of IL-8 on admission and PaCO2(r=-0.409, p=0.045).
There was a significant correlation between the level of CRP and platelets on admission (r= 0.526, p= 0.01).
The levels of inflammatory biomarkers were not affected by sputum culture organism or count, however, the highest values of the inflammatory markers was among those with positive bacterial growth in the cultures (namely Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Streptcoccus Viridans).
The levels of inflammatory biomarkers were not significantly associated with smoking history or dyspnea grade; however, the inflammatory biomarkers were the highest in case of active smoking and severe