How to assess the severity of bronchiectasis.

Wait long enough for a bus and two arrive at once. As with buses, so with bronchiectasis scoring systems. In this issue of the European Respiratory Journal MARTINEZ-GARCIA et al. [1] report the development of a ‘‘FACED’’ bronchiectasis prognostic score. This follows the recent publication by CHALMERS et al. [2] of the ‘‘Bronchiectasis Severity Index’’ (BSI). Bronchiectasis is a neglected disease and research in the area is to be welcomed, especially when it enables us to manage our patients more appropriately. But, like any good research, these studies raise as many questions as answers: most importantly, what do we even mean when we talk about bronchiectasis ‘‘severity’’?