CFTR mutations and polymorphisms in adults with disseminated bronchiectasis: a controversial issue.

The recently published paper by King et al 1 prompted us to report the results of our study of 19 Serbian patients with disseminated bronchiectasis (DB) of unknown cause for whom complete screening of the CFTR gene was performed. Our patients consisted of four men and 15 women of mean age 54.5 years (range 24–79); the mean age at onset of the disease was 38.8 years. The diagnosis was based on high resolution computed tomographic (HRCT) scanning. Known and common causes of bronchiectasis such as primary ciliary dyskinesia, immunodeficiency, and α1­-antytripsin deficiency were excluded. Most of the patients had Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from their sputum. Pulmonary function tests were performed in …