Source: Annual Congress 2004 - Chronic cough, hyperreactivity and lung granuloma"s"
Disease area: Airway diseases

Abstract

Background: Atopic cough presents with chronic cough and response to histamine H₁-anatagonists and glucocorticoids but without sputum eosinophilia seen in eosinophilic bronchitis (EB). It is important to know how commonly atopic cough causes chronic cough.
Methods: A total of 158 nonsmoking patients who complained of cough for ≥ 3 weeks and had normal findings on chest radiographs were study prospectively using a well-established protocol. The atopic cough was diagnosed if patients had no symptoms suggesting variable airflow obstruction, indication of atopy, and had normal spirometric values, normal peak expiratory variability, no airway hyperresponsivness, no sputum eosinophilia (<3%), no well-known causes of cough such as rhinitis (RS), gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), and a response to histamine H₁-anatagonists and glucocorticoids.
Results: The cause of chronic cough was determined in 96%, it was due to a single cause in 123 patients (81%), multiple causes in 28 patients (19%). The five most important causative factors of cough were EB in 47 patients (30%), RS in 36 (23%), atopic cough in 23 (15%), asthma in 21 (13%), and GERD in 16 (10%). In all 23 patients with atopic cough, the cough improved 1-7 days after treatment with loratadine 10 mg once daily and methylprednisolone 16 mg once daily.
Conclusion: Our study suggests that atopic cough is a common cause of chronic cough, which could be treated effectively by histamine H₁-anatagonists and glucocorticoids.
Sponsored by Science and Technology Bureau of Guangzhou, Nature Science Foundation of Guangdong, National Nature Science Foundation of China (30370621)

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Citations should be made in the following way:
K. Lai, C. Liu, R. Cheng, W. Luo, S. Zhong, N. Zhong (Guangzhou, China). Atopic cough is an important cause of chronic cough. Eur Respir J 2004; 24: Suppl. 48, 414

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