title: Cough physiology in elderly women with nontuberculous mycobacterial lung infections.
abstract: Elderly white, thin, nonsmoking women appear to be more susceptible to lung infections withMycobacterium aviumcomplex and other nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). It has been postulated that such disease in women is related to suppression of their cough. We hypothesized that patients with pulmonary NTM (pNTM) infections may have altered cough physiology compared with unaffected control subjects. We used capsaicin-induced cough to assess the cough reflex in pNTM subjects. Eight elderly white women with stable chronic pNTM infections and six unaffected age-matched control subjects were recruited. There was no significant difference between groups in capsaicin-elicited cough motor response, airflow pattern, or cough frequency. The urge-to-cough (UTC) score at the lowest capsaicin concentration was significantly lower in pNTM than control subjects (P< 0.05). There were no significant differences in the UTC score between pNTM and control subjects at >50 μM capsaicin. These results suggest lower UTC sensitivity to the lowest concentration of capsaicin in pNTM than control subjects. In other words, the pNTM subjects do not sense a UTC when the stimulus is relatively small.NEW & NOTEWORTHYThis study investigates the cough motor response and cough sensitivity in patients with nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) infection. In elderly white female pulmonary NTM subjects, we demonstrated a capacity to produce coughs similar to that of age-matched control subjects but decreased cough sensitivity in response to a low dose of capsaicin compared with control subjects. These findings are important to understand the pathophysiological mechanisms resulting in NTM disease in elderly white women and/or the syndrome developing in elderly white female NTM patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiological Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.
authors.forename: Hsiu-Wen
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida; and.
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fennelly
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wheeler-Hegland
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiological Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.
authors.forename: Sherry
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiological Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.
authors.forename: Jillian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Condrey
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida; and.
authors.forename: Jennifer L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Hosford
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiological Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida; pdavenpo@ufl.edu.
authors.forename: Paul W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Davenport
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002211:Capsaicin / Q000494:pharmacology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003371:Cough / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009165:Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous / Q000503:physiopathology*
chemical_list: D002211:Capsaicin
keywords: NTM; capsaicin, urge to cough; cough; elderly women