title: Does idiopathic cough exist?
abstract: Despite a meticulous protocol involving diagnostic testing and trials of empirical therapy, there may be no obvious cause for a chronic cough in up to 42% of cases referred for specialist evaluation. In some cases, failure to consider causes that include the asthma/eosinophilic airway syndromes such as eosinophilic bronchitis and atopic cough, or nonacid gastroesophageal reflux disease may explain diagnostic failure. However, a distinct group of patients may be considered to have true idiopathic cough. Current published evidence suggests a certain patient phenotype, namely, middle-aged females with prolonged nonproductive cough and cough reflex hypersensitivity. Almost nothing else is known about this clinical entity and currently no specific therapy exists.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK. l.mcgarvey@qub.ac.uk
authors.forename: Lorcan P A
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: McGarvey
mesh_terms: D001249:Asthma / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D001991:Bronchitis / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003371:Cough / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D005764:Gastroesophageal Reflux / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D011379:Prognosis; D012018:Reflex / Q000502:physiology*