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Bronchiectasis means the airways in your lungs aren't working properly. It affects the way you breathe and makes you more likely to get chest infections.

To understand bronchiectasis, it helps to know a bit about how your lungs work.

Your lungs are in the middle of your chest, behind your ribs.

They are like spongy, stretchy bags that fill up with air when you breathe in and empty when you breathe out.

When you take a breath, air goes down your windpipe and into your lungs through a network of thin tubes called bronchioles. At the end of these tubes are tiny sacs called alveoli. Oxygen from the air goes into your bloodstream through blood vessels in these sacs.

The lungs make small amounts of fluid, called mucus. Mucus keeps your airways moist and helps get rid of dirt and germs. Tiny hairs (called cilia) inside your airways sweep excess mucus, dirt and germs out of your lungs when you cough.

If you have bronchiectasis, some of the airways in your lungs are too wide. This usually happens because the walls of the airways have been damaged. Because the airways are too wide, mucus builds up inside them.¹

When you have a lot of mucus in your lungs, you may find it hard to cough it all out. The mucus that gets left behind can be infected by bacteria. This means you get a chest infection.

Getting a lot of chest infections can make it hard for you to breathe. You may feel very tired and unwell. Infections can also damage your lungs further. So it's important to have treatment quickly when you get a chest infection.² (See Treating chest infections.)

People usually get bronchiectasis because something has damaged their lung. This could have been before they were born. Many people with bronchiectasis have an inherited condition called cystic fibrosis. Cystic fibrosis makes you produce too much mucus. Other people are born with a condition that causes the cilia in their airways not to work properly.³

Most people with inherited bronchiectasis are diagnosed when they are babies or children. But some people get it later in childhood or when they are adults.

Things that can cause bronchiectasis later in life include:³

• Infections like measles, whooping cough or tuberculosis (TB)
• Getting something, like a peanut, trapped in the lung
• Having an allergy to something in the air
• Breathing in a harmful chemical in the air.

This information is for educational use only, and is not a substitute for prompt professional medical advice. Readers should always consult a physician or other professional for advice and treatment. ©BMJ Publishing Group Limited 2008. All rights reserved.