@irenea8 Thank you! I'm going to look into that!

@irenea8 @lvnl at my HMO I do CF respiratory sputum test, rather than standard respiratory sputum test, as the CF version specifically looks for the nasty bugs that tend to show up for those of us with bronchiectasis. Once I moved my care within my HMO to a doctor with experience in bronchiectasis, that doctor recommended this switch in testing for me, and my understanding is my outside NTM specialist recommends the same, i.e. CF respiratory sputum testing as opposed to standard respiratory sputum test for bronchiectasis patients. Every lab may function differently, for instance I have been a patient at NJH and their lab, which is arguably the best if not one of the best in the country, they may not even use this distinction. It wasn’t raised by my doctor there, and their lab certainly gives more details on the sputum testing than the standard labs. My impression is they have their own approach to sputum testing. But if your doctor is using a standard lab, it is worth having a discussion with them about any distinction between CF and standard respiratory sputum testing, and make sure you are getting the most appropriate test for your condition. To clarify, I do NOT have CF, just a whole bunch of bronchiectasis.