A retrospective cohort was created for the analysis of patients with severe COPD and chronic bronchial infection due to <i>P. aeruginosa</i> treated with nebulized colistin at the Respiratory Day Care Unit between 2005 and 2015.
CAP patients were older, with a larger representation of males, more comorbidities, higher arterial hypertension and COPD but less chronic bronchial infection and previous history of exacerbations.
This study investigated which physiological factors (airway obstruction, ventilation inhomogeneities, pulmonary hyperinflation, development of trapped gas) best express the decline in lung function, and what role specific CFTR genotypes and different types of bronchial infection may have upon this process.
We propose that internalized P. aeruginosa may play an important role in the pathogenesis of infection and that, by allowing greater internalization into epithelial cells, mutant CFTR results in an increased susceptibility of bronchial infection with this microbe.