Patients’ follow-up within twelve months after fibreoptic
bronchoscopy
Following fibreoptic bronchoscopy, patients from both the “Low-Ex” and
“High-Ex” groups were more frequently treated by antibiotics than
those from the “No-Ex” group without any difference between “Low-Ex”
and “High-Ex” (Table 2). However, the percentages of patients with
pathogenic bacteria in the BALF treated by antibiotics after fibreoptic
bronchoscopy were not significantly different between the three groups
(Table 2).
During the twelve months after fibreoptic bronchoscopy, the proportion
of patients admitted at least once in the emergency department was
increased in both “Low-Ex” and “High-Ex” vs. “No-Ex” and the
proportion of patients requiring at least one hospitalization for wheeze
were significantly increased in descending order of frequency in
“High-Ex” compared to “Low-Ex” compared to “No-Ex”
(Table 2). In addition, the
proportion of patients requiring an increased daily dose of inhaled
corticosteroids (ICS) was higher in “High-Ex” compared to the two
other groups whereas the proportion of patients with unchanged daily
dose of ICS was not significantly different between the three groups
(Table 2).
During the follow-up period, there were no significant differences
between groups according to the number of patients treated with ICS,
leukotriene receptor antagonists, long-acting beta2-agonists,
antihistamine agents (Table 2). By contrast, there were higher daily
doses of ICS in “High-Ex” (1600µg [1000; 2000]) than in both
“Low-Ex” (1000µg [800; 2000]) and “No-Ex” patients (1000 [425;
1000], p<0.001).