TOPLINE

Among children with non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis, about one third demonstrated bronchial hyperresponsiveness, which was associated with poorer lung function but not with asthma symptoms, atopy, exacerbations, or CT findings.

METHODOLOGY

• Drawing on data from a French database for rare diseases, researchers conducted a retrospective, observational study to evaluate the prevalence of bronchial hyperresponsiveness among children with non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis and whether it relates to clinical, functional, and radiologic characteristics.
• The analysis included 65 children (mean age, 10 years; 40% boys) with non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis who underwent chest CT and spirometry to assess bronchodilator response within 3 years of imaging.
• Bronchial hyperresponsiveness was confirmed when a child's forced expiratory volume in 1 second was more than 10% after receiving four puffs of salbutamol through a spacer device.
• The primary endpoint was the proportion of children in whom bronchial hyperresponsiveness could be identified; secondary endpoints included clinical, functional, and CT findings, which were compared between children with and without bronchial hyperresponsiveness.

TAKEAWAY

• Overall, 32.3% of children had bronchial hyperresponsiveness. Among 29 children with baseline airway obstruction, 62% had bronchial hyperresponsiveness.
• Children with vs without bronchial hyperresponsiveness had poorer lung function, with lower forced expiratory volume in 1 second and forced expiratory volume in 1 second/forced vital capacity ratios (mean Z score, -2.12 vs -0.87 and -2.28 vs -0.85, respectively; P < .001 for both).
• No significant differences were observed between children with and without bronchial hyperresponsiveness in terms of asthma symptoms, atopy markers, annual asthma exacerbations, infectious exacerbations, cause of bronchiectasis, or CT signs of mosaic attenuation and/or air trapping.

IN PRACTICE

"Given the lack of correlation with asthma symptoms, systematic lung function testing is essential to optimize treatment strategies," the authors wrote.

SOURCE

The study was led by Lisa Gerbeau, University Hospital La Timone Enfants, Marseille, France. It was published online on September 22, 2026, in Pediatric Pulmonology.

LIMITATIONS

The retrospective design limited the assessment of factors that may have influenced bronchodilator responsiveness. The assessment relied on a single pulmonary function test. Because the methacholine challenge test was not performed, bronchial hyperresponsiveness could only be assessed through forced expiratory volume in 1 second reversibility.

DISCLOSURES

The authors did not report any funding sources and declared having no conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.