Bronchiectasis

Bronchiectasis is a long-term condition where the airways of the lungs become abnormally widened, leading to a build-up of excess mucus that can make the lungs more vulnerable to infection.

The most common symptoms of bronchiectasis include:

a persistent cough that usually brings up phlegm (sputum) breathlessness

The severity of symptoms can vary widely. Some people have only a few symptoms that don’t appear often, while others have wide-ranging daily symptoms.

The symptoms tend to get worse if you develop an infection in your lungs.

Read more about the symptoms of bronchiectasis.

Symptoms

The most common symptom of bronchiectasis is a persistent cough that brings up a large amount of phlegm on a daily basis.

The phlegm can be clear, pale yellow or yellow-greenish in colour. Other people may only occasionally cough up small amounts of phlegm, or none at all.

Other symptoms may include:

shortness of breath wheezing coughing up blood or blood-stained phlegm chest pain joint pain clubbing of the fingertips – the tissue beneath the nail thickens and the fingertips become rounded and bulbous