Arch Dis Child 1999;80:211-213 ( March )

Annotation

   Isolated cough: probably not asthma

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

	Introduction

Children with cough, unassociated with wheeze or other evidence of systemic disease, are commonly seen in paediatric practice. In the distant past, the association between cough and wheeze was underrecognised but in recent years, as highlighted by McKenzie, children with cough alone have increasingly been diagnosed as having asthma.¹

	Problems relating to clinical studies of cough

Studies that include cough as an outcome need to be interpreted in light of inherent methodological problems. First, although the history of cough is a commonly used variable in epidemiology,^2 3 the reporting of cough has poor repeatability. The chance corrected agreement (Cohen's ) between two occasions when cough was reported, is unacceptably low (0.140.19).^4 5 In contrast, wheeze related questions have excellent  values of 0.760.88.^4 5 Second, cough, especially nocturnal cough, is unreliably reported compared with objective measures.^6 7 In adults, the reporting and scoring of cough is dependent on psychological factors.⁸ Third, although cough scores using diary cards are widely used . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Beydon, N., Davis, S. D., Lombardi, E., Allen, J. L., Arets, H. G. M., Aurora, P., Bisgaard, H., Davis, G. M., Ducharme, F. M., Eigen, H., Gappa, M., Gaultier, C., Gustafsson, P. M., Hall, G. L., Hantos, Z., Healy, M. J. R., Jones, M. H., Klug, B., Lodrup Carlsen, K. C., McKenzie, S. A., Marchal, F., Mayer, O. H., Merkus, P. J. F. M., Morris, M. G., Oostveen, E., Pillow, J. J., Seddon, P. C., Silverman, M., Sly, P. D., Stocks, J., Tepper, R. S., Vilozni, D., Wilson, N. M., on behalf of the American Thoracic Society/Europea, (2007). An Official American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society Statement: Pulmonary Function Testing in Preschool Children. Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 175: 1304-1345 [Full Text]  
• Anthracopoulos, M. B, Liolios, E., Panagiotakos, D. B, Triantou, K., Priftis, K. N (2007). Prevalence of asthma among schoolchildren in Patras, Greece: four questionnaire surveys during 1978-2003. Arch. Dis. Child. 92: 209-212 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Malmberg, L P, Pelkonen, A S, Haahtela, T, Turpeinen, M (2003). Exhaled nitric oxide rather than lung function distinguishes preschool children with probable asthma. Thorax 58: 494-499 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• LIPWORTH, B J, HARRISON, T, TATTERSFIELD, A, MCKENZIE, S A, HARRISON, T, TATTERSFIELD, A (2001). Systemic effects of inhaled steroids. Thorax 56: 980b-981 [Full Text]  
• Paton, J. Y (2000). A 14-day regimen of high-dose inhaled corticosteroids was more effective than placebo for persistent nocturnal cough. Evid. Based Med. 5: 19-19 [Full Text]