Contents Preface v Guest Editors vii Introduction ix 1. Acute bronchitis: aetiology and treatment 1 Carl Llor 2. Chronic bronchitis: a risk factor for bronchial infection 18 Laia Garcia-Bellmunt, Oriol Sibila, Marcos I. Restrepo and Antonio Anzueto 3. Sputum colour: a marker of bacterial infection 27 Robert A. Stockley 4. Chronic bronchial infection/colonisation: aetiology and mechanisms 34 Sanjay Sethi 5. Impact of chronic bronchial infection on the lungs and beyond 46 Zinka Matkovic, Neven Tudoric and Marc Miravitlles 6. Definition and aetiology of infective exacerbations of COPD 58 Gaetano Caramori, Marco Contoli, Brunilda Marku, Paolo Casolari, Alessia Pauletti, Giacomo Forini and Alberto Papi 7. The role of viruses in chronic bronchitis and exacerbations of COPD 68 Gernot G.U. Rohde 8. Virus–bacteria interactions in COPD exacerbations 76 Patrick Mallia, Aran Singanayagam and Sebastian L. Johnston 9. Impact of exacerbations in the natural course of COPD 84 Francesco Blasi, Stefano Aliberti and Marco Mantero 10. Antibiotic treatment and prevention of exacerbations of COPD 96 Maria Lerikou, Elias Perros, Urania Anagnostopoulou and George Dimopoulos 11. Definition and aetiology of non-CF bronchiectasis 107 Robert Wilson, David M. Hansell and Michael R. Loebinger Number 60 June 2013