Changes in the characteristics of the cough sound may refer to some specific pathological processes and their evolution. In this pilot study we analyzed voluntary cough sound properties in subjects with asthma bronchiale (AB) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and discriminated them from the control cough sound in healthy subjects. The wavelet transform was used due to a nonstatio...

Chronic cough is a common problem in childhood. Viral infections are the most prevalent cause, but other rarer disorders should be excluded whenever cough appears unusually severe and/or frequent, and when there is evidence of failure to thrive and growth retardation. The younger the child, the more the need to exclude underlying disease at an early stage. Passive smoking is an important contri...

According to guidelines from the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand and the American College of Chest Physicians, cough is considered chronic in children if it lasts longer than 4 weeks1,2; in guidelines from the British Thoracic Society, cough is considered chronic if it lasts 8 weeks.3 In adults, cough that lasts longer than 8 weeks is considered chronic. The pediatric guidelines a...

Although we applaud Khoshoo et al 1 on performing such a comprehensive series of investigations in these 40 children with chronic cough, as reported in a recent issue of CHEST (September 2009), we have major reservations with their conclusions. In particular, we question the assumption that the improvement in cough (assessed at 8 weeks by parent on a subjective visual analog scale cough score) ...

BACKGROUND Chronic cough is a common condition which has a significant impact on quality of life. Assessment and management are hampered by the absence of well validated outcome measures. The development and validation of the Leicester Cough Questionnaire (LCQ), a self-completed health related quality of life measure of chronic cough, is presented. METHODS Patients with chronic cough were rec...

Gastroesophageal reflux induced cough is a common cause of chronic cough, and proton pump inhibitors are a standard therapy. However, the patients unresponsive to the standard therapy are difficult to treat and remain a challenge to doctors. Here, we summarized the experience of successful resolution of refractory chronic cough due to gastroesophageal reflux with baclofen in three patients. It ...

Cough is a protective reflex action that helps clear the respiratory tract which is continuously exposed to airborne environmental irritants. However, chronic cough presents itself as a disease in its own right and despite its global occurrence; the molecular mechanisms responsible for cough are not completely understood. Transient receptor potential ankyrin1 (TRPA1) is robustly expressed in th...

BACKGROUND Chronic cough is a common problem, frequently caused or exacerbated by acid reflux. Diagnosis of acid reflux cough is haphazard currently, often relying on long therapeutic trials of expensive medications. We tested the hypothesis that the most relevant mechanistic component of acid reflux in chronic cough is when it rises to the level of the airway where acid can potentially be aspi...

Reports from individual centres suggest a preponderance of females with chronic cough. Females also have heightened cough reflex sensitivity. Here we have reviewed the age and sex of unselected referrals to 11 cough clinics. To investigate the cause of any observed sex dimorphism, functional magnetic resonance imaging of putative cough centres was analysed in normal volunteers. The demographic ...

We report a case of a 54-year old female who presented with chronic cough. Computerized tomography (CT) scan of the chest was not remarkable. She underwent empirical treatment for common causes of chronic cough for months to no avail, after which flexible bronchoscopy revealed right lower lobe endobronchial mucoepidermoid carcinoma. Surgical resection resulted in complete resolution of the coug...