Most children with protracted bacterial bronchitis face ongoing respiratory morbidity, with more than one quarter going on to develop asthma, research suggests.

The results underline the importance of careful follow-up for paediatric patients with protracted bacterial bronchitis (PBB), the researchers say. This could mean scans to identify bronchiectasis, they add.

Their five-year follow-up of 166 children with PBB found 67% had ongoing or intermittent symptoms, such as wet cough, including 27% diagnosed with asthma and 10% diagnosed with bronchiectasis.

It was the largest prospective longitudinal study of children with PBB and the first study to show a link with asthma, said the researchers, led by physicians at the Queensland Children’s Hospital in Brisbane.