Exacerbations of chronic airway disease are well-described phenomena across diseases, including bronchiectasis (BE), whether secondary to cystic fibrosis (CF) or not. Exacerbations are frequent in CF and BE: in recent registries, 20% of children and 70% of adults with CF [1] and 75% of adults with BE [2] experienced at least one exacerbation in the previous year. In most diseases, the diagnosis of an exacerbation is made based on clinical criteria: deterioration of symptoms (CF and BE) and pulmonary function (CF) [3, 4]. The immediate initiating event(s) of an exacerbation is not completely elucidated, despite several studies exploring changes in biomarkers between exacerbation and stability [5].

慢性气道疾病的恶化是各种疾病中众所周知的现象，包括支气管扩张（BE），无论是否继发于囊性纤维化（CF）。CF 和 BE 的加重很常见：在最近的登记中，20% 的 CF 儿童和 70% 的成人 CF [1] 以及 75% 的 BE 成人 [2] 在前一年至少经历过一次加重。在大多数疾病中，恶化的诊断是根据临床标准做出的：症状恶化（CF 和 BE）和肺功能（CF）[3, 4]。尽管有几项研究探索了恶化和稳定之间生物标志物的变化，但恶化的直接起始事件尚未完全阐明[5]。