Voluntary cough suppression as an indication of symptom severity in upper respiratory tract infections

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to determine whether the ability to suppress cough voluntarily is an index of cough severity in upper respiratory tract infection. Cough was measured by means of a microphone linked to a pen recorder and subjects were instructed to voluntarily suppress cough in order to determine cough suppression time. Subjective scores of symptom severity, mood and psychological parameters were made prior to cough measurements. The baseline frequency of cough showed a distribution towards the higher frequencies, with a median of 2.1 (lower quartile 1.2, upper quartile 3.2) coughs.min-1. The results for cough suppression fell into two distinct groups, one group reaching a breaking point within 12.6 min; and another group which did not cough during the 20 min cough suppression period. In the group of subjects which broke from the cough suppression, there was an inverse relationship between the cough suppression time and the baseline frequency of cough. The median frequency of cough following cough suppression was significantly greater than the baseline median frequency of cough. The subjects who reached a breaking point had a greater baseline frequency of cough and a greater symptom severity score, and they also felt more feeble, clumsy, sad and antagonistic than the group which did not reach a breaking point. The subjects who reached a breaking point had significantly greater scores for the psychology parameter of obsessional symptoms than the group which did not reach a breaking point.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Similarities and differences between the cough suppression test and the cough challenge test

“…Therefore, although the causes are not clear, impaired cough suppression seemed to signify worse severe cough symptom in patients with URI. 64 This study provided novel ideas for the future application of the cough suppression test. Similarly, more studies could be conducted using the cough suppression test in a range of respiratory diseases such as asthma, chronic bronchitis, and so on to evaluate their use in the classification, diagnosis and treatment of these diseases.…”

“…The cough suppression test has great potential in the evaluation of other diseases in which cough is one of the main symptoms. Hutchings et al 64 analysed whether voluntary cough suppression could be used as an index of symptom severity in URI. The study found that some of subjects suppressed coughing less than 12.6 min (cough break group), while others could suppress for more than 20 min.…”