What is Chronic Cough? Disease or Symptom?

A chronic cough is a persistent cough that lasts eight weeks or longer, on some or most days. A cough can be a symptom of many lung diseases but it can also manifest from conditions that are not related to the lungs. 

? The question is: How do you (as a clinician) manage a patient with a chronic cough? 

Managing a patient who suffers from a chronic cough is a real clinical challenge. Patients have often been left undiagnosed, and untreated, have seen multiple specialists and continue to suffer from unpleasant symptoms which have a profound impact on their quality of life. The list of differential diagnoses for chronic cough is big. 

There are two types of chronic cough:

• “Symptomatic” chronic cough is caused by an underlying disease that can be treated once the disease is diagnosed.
• “Refractory” chronic cough is a cough that persists despite guideline-based treatment.

It’s not just a nuisance to the patient. Having a chronic cough is incredibly debilitating. It can interrupt your sleep, leave you feeling exhausted, and cause vomiting, lightheadedness and even rib fractures. And given the list of differential diagnoses is so vast, where do you start to manage a patient?

Professor Peter Hellings (Professor in Otorhinolaryngology at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, EUFOREA Founder and Chairman) was invited to this new EUFOREA news show to offer his insight on chronic cough.