TY - JOUR T1 - Protracted bacterial bronchitis is a precursor for bronchiectasis in children: myth or maxim? JF - Breathe JO - Breathe SP - 167 LP - 170 DO - 10.1183/20734735.0178-2019 VL - 15 IS - 3 AU - Anne B. Chang AU - Julie M. Marchant Y1 - 2019/09/01 UR - http://breathe.ersjournals.com/content/15/3/167.abstract N2 - While publications from days gone by did not refer to PBB as such, the condition clearly existed. Historically, astute clinicians described PBB-like conditions but did not define it as a clinical entity. Field's 1940s series on paediatric bronchiectasis described the concept of a pre-bronchiectasis state [1, 3] and advocated aggressive treatment (predominantly antibiotics) for prevention and cure of bronchiectasis. In the same era, Finke [7] opened his paper with the statement “The common background of chronic bronchitis and bronchiectasis is, in the majority of cases, non-tuberculous broncho-pulmonary infection”. In that era, tools that are now widely available (e.g. flexible bronchoscopy and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) assessments) were non-existent. Almost 40 years ago, Taussig et al. [8] highlighted the various definitions of “childhood chronic bronchitis” doctors used, ranging from “productive cough for 3-months in a year” to “recurrent episodes of cough lasting for >2-weeks” and wheezing.Recognising the link between protracted bacterial bronchitis and bronchiectasis creates an opportunity to understand the pathobiology of early suppurative endobronchial lung disease and prospects for the development of effective and early interventions http://bit.ly/2K3ikI6 ER -