Objective: Preliminary study of the cough reflex sensitivity test in chronic cough patients with different gender, disease duration and causes to evaluate the clinical diagnostic significance of the test and further provide some information for the treatment of chronic cough.
Methods: Totally 108 chronic cough patients in our hospital were enrolled in the study with the final diagnosis of upper airway cough syndrome (UACS), cough variant asthma (CVA) and gastroesophageal reflux cough (GERC). They all went through the cough reflex sensitivity test and the retrospective analysis of the results was made.
Results: In 108 patients with chronic cough (76 UACS, 19 CVA and 13 GERC), lgC5 was significantly slower in the female (1.80) than the male (2.40, P < 0.05) and in the patients with cough duration over 12 months (1.80) than those with cough duration under 12 months (2.40, P < 0.05). Cough sensitivity in patients with different causes was significantly different (P < 0.05) with lower lgC5 in GERC patients (1.49) than CVA (2.40, P < 0.05) and UACS (2.40, P < 0.05) patients.
Conclusions: Cough sensitivity is different in chronic cough patients with different gender, disease duration and causes. Cough reflex sensitivity test is of great value in the etiology diagnosis of chronic cough.