A non-inferiority randomised clinical trial (single-blind) will be conducted. At least 50 participants will be recruited from the outpatient clinics of the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona and the Clinical University Hospital in Zaragoza. The experimental group will nebulize once/day the hypertonic saline (HS) solution followed by airway clearance exercises (15 min) for 6 months. The control group will follow the same procedure, but the frequency of the sessions will be twice a day (reference as usual clinical practice). The main study outcomes will be: (1) cough severity (primary endpoint), symptoms and quality of life; (2) functional exercise capacity; (3) time to first exacerbation and total number of exacerbations; (4) indirect measures of mucociliary transport (rheology and concentration of solids in sputum samples); (5) inflammatory parameters; (5) tolerance, safety and adherence to treatment. Measurements will be taken at baseline (prior to randomization), at 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months. Finally, hypothesis testing will be performed using a linear mixed model (2x3) of repeated measures, establishing a priori a margin of non-inferiority.
The present study will aim to find out whether a home treatment in people with bronchiectasis consisting of a single daily session to facilitate expectoration (combining nebulization of hypertonic saline (HS) at 6% followed by airway clearance techniques) is at least as effective as performing two sessions per day following the same process in each of the sessions, during a period of 6 months.