title: Chronic cough: clinical characteristics and etiologies of 510 cases.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the clinical features and underlying etiologies of chronic cough (CC).
  
  
  METHODS
  Five hundred and ten CC patients were enrolled. The phases, characteristics and associated clinical manifestations of CC among the gastroesophageal reflux cough (GERC), cough-variant asthma (CVA), and upper airway cough syndrome (UACS) groups were compared, and the diagnostic values of each group were evaluated by multiple regression analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the 510 patients, 404 had CC with single etiology-GERC (n = 175), CVA (n = 134), and UACS (n = 95). The characteristic features of GERC included gastric acid backflow symptoms such as sour-tasting regurgitation, heartburn, endoscopic esophagitis, poststimulation cough, frequent throat clearing, daytime mono-cough, and feelings of heaviness and pain in the chest. Patients with CVA typically exhibited sensitivity to smog and other irritants; the cough occurred mostly at night, and was associated with positive bronchodilator and provocation test results. The typical features of UACS included a history and/or symptoms of rhinitis, retropharyngeal postnasal drip, and wet cough occurring mostly during the daytime. The diagnostic specificities of above factors were >70%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The most common causes of CC include GERC, CVA, and UACS, and their diagnosis is based on the characteristics of the underlying disease.
authors.affiliation: Respiratory Department, Xiamen Chang Gung Hospital, Xiamen, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Guiyuan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Respiratory Department, Xiamen Chang Gung Hospital, Xiamen, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Xinying
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Respiratory Department, Xiamen Chang Gung Hospital, Xiamen, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Tianlin
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Respiratory Department, Xiamen Chang Gung Hospital, Xiamen, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Dongping
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D001249:Asthma; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003371:Cough; D005764:Gastroesophageal Reflux; D006801:Humans; D013577:Syndrome
keywords: Chronic cough; diagnosis; single cause; symptomatic characteristic