Arronchiectasis traditionally has been a very difficult disease to diagnose. Prior to the introduction of chest CT scanning, The diagnostic radiographic procedure was called bronchography, uh, which was a very tough, uh, procedure. And, uh, it, it was guaranteed that no patient would do that twice. But fortunately, uh, chest CT scanning has, uh, taken over as the primary tool for the diagnosis of bronchiectasis. The problem is initial recognition of patients at risk for bronchiectasis, so that the chest CT can be requested. Patients sometimes present with not just months but years of recurrent respiratory infections and cough. And are diagnosed with asthma or COPD, uh, and do not have the full diagnostic evaluation that would uh uncover bronchiectasis. I think a a a good rule of thumb is. If someone has a cough that lasts more than 8 weeks, uh, and without an explanation, then that person should have, uh, a chest CT, uh, and probably a sputum collection for NTM. The burden of bronchiectasis is, uh, almost exploding, uh, just because of greater awareness of the diagnosis, uh, both initially when patients present and, uh, when a patient is referred to a specialist, such as a pulmonary disease or infectious disease, uh, specialist. But the Even with that improvement in the uh diagnosis, uh, we estimate that there are still many, many more patients who have bronchiectasis who are not yet diagnosed. Uh, and at this time, with the introduction of brinzicib, we're treating bronchiectasis, it is even more important that these patients get firmly identified. Uh, so that they can take advantage of this, uh, very important therapeutic advance.
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