Aims: To evaluate night-time cough patterns in children with either acute wheezing or an URTI, and to correlate them to the clinical diagnosis.
Methods: Night-time cough variables of 49 children diagnosed with acute wheezing and with URTI were compared using a portable cough monitoring instrument placed in the child's room.
Results: Children with acute wheezing had significantly more coughs per night, a longer duration of cough sounds, a higher number of coughing bouts per night, and a higher number of coughs per second within a bout, than children with an URTI. Children with acute wheezing coughed significantly more between 23.00 and 01.00, whereas between 01.00 and 06.00 there was no significant difference in the number of coughs between the two groups.
Conclusions: Significant differences were found in night-time cough variables between children with an acute episode of wheezing and children with an URTI. This could be useful in clinical practice.