Once considered an orphan condition, bronchiectasis is now recognised as a common and actionable chronic respiratory disease with an expanding clinical and research community. The European Respiratory Society (ERS) has taken the lead in this area by supporting the European Multicentre Audit and Research Collaboration (EMBARC), a project that has done much to help understanding of bronchiectasis. In this Monograph, key leaders of EMBARC, James D. Chalmers, Amelia Shoemark and Stefano Alberti, have brought together comprehensive and authoritative chapters covering epidemiology, imaging, current management advice, future therapeutic options, and the challenges to come. This Monograph will provide clinicians, researchers and allied health professionals with the knowledge and tools required to improve the quality of life of people living with bronchiectasis.
Understanding bronchiectasis through patient voices
Epidemiology of bronchiectasis
The basics of bronchiectasis
Radiology in bronchiectasis: from radiological signs
to quantifiable disease
The immunology of bronchiectasis
Mucociliary clearance in bronchiectasis
Chronic airway infection and the microbiome in
bronchiectasis
Primary ciliary dyskinesia
Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis
Autoimmune conditions and bronchiectasis
COPD, asthma and bronchiectasis overlap
Nontuberculous mycobacterial infections and
bronchiectasis
Investigation and management of immunodeficiency
disorders in bronchiectasis
Protracted bacterial bronchitis and
pre-bronchiectasis
Principles of management: an overview of the 2025
European Respiratory
Society bronchiectasis guidelines
Airway clearance management in bronchiectasis:
techniques, devices and mucoactive agents
Antibiotic management: macrolides and inhaled
antibiotics
Dipeptidyl peptidase-1 inhibitors in bronchiectasis
Investigation and management of the deteriorating
patient
Acute exacerbations of bronchiectasis
Bronchiectasis in children
Bronchiectasis clinical trial design considerations
The bronchiectasis treatment pipeline
What have we learned from the EMBARC project?
Research priorities and progress for bronchiectasis
James D. Chalmers is Rhodes Chair of Experimental Therapeutics at the University of Oxford (Oxford, UK) and an active clinician caring for patients with difficult respiratory infections, particularly bronchiectasis. Amelia Shoemark is Asthma and Lung UK Chair of Respiratory Research at the University of Dundee (Dundee, UK), where she leads a translational research programme in chronic and rare respiratory disease. Stefano Aliberti is Full Professor of Respiratory Diseases at Humanitas University in Milan (Italy) and Chief of the Respiratory Unit at IRCCS Humanitas Research Hospital (Rozzano, Italy).
