Impact of refractory and unexplained chronic cough on disease burden: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Chronic cough lasting for > 8 weeks is a common medical condition that burdens patients. This study aimed to qualitatively describe knowledge, awareness, experiences, and subtypes of burdens (physical, social, psychological) among Japanese patients with refractory chronic cough (refractory to treatment of underlying relevant medical conditions) and unexplained chronic cough (symptoms of unexplained origin). METHODS: This non-interventional, cross-sectional study was conducted between February and March 2021 among patients (aged ≥ 20 years) with self-reported refractory or unexplained chronic cough. Subjects with a history of comorbid respiratory conditions were excluded. Eligible subjects participated in a 60-min online semi-structured interview. Verbatim terms from interviews were qualitatively transcribed and generated into word clouds, followed by a clustering analysis in which meaningful clusters were chosen, manually coded, and utterances and burdens categorized. RESULTS: A total of 21 participants (95.2% with refractory chronic cough, mean age 53.5 years, and 76.2% being males) with Leicester Cough Questionnaire mean ± standard deviation scores of physical 4.8 ± 1.1, psychological 4.4 ± 1.3, social 4.9 ± 1.4, and total 14.1 ± 3.5 were included. The word cloud identified the most frequently used word ('cough'); etiology ('asthma'); and words associated with change in states ('influence,' 'changing,' 'change') and expressions ('tough,' 'pain,' 'hard,' 'terrible,' 'unpleasant'). The patients experienced 'mental/social burden,' 'physical burden,' 'impact on sleep and meals,' 'impact on work and housework,' 'impact on communication,' 'impact on hobbies and leisure,' and 'economic burden.' By closed coding analysis, the situations or types of burden patients experienced from the cough were ordered sequentially as emotion, working style, acquaintanceship, hobbies and leisure, and sleeping pattern. CONCLUSIONS: The present study indicated that there were two types of participant clusters, in which one showed mainly the burdens in the social communications such as work-related communication and another one showed the burdens of relationships with others. Also, some participants highlighted 'mental burden,' on social life due to the current pandemic. To relieve these burdens, disease awareness and knowledge should be improved for patients with refractory and unexplained chronic cough. Trial registration The trial was registered under UMIN-CTR as UMIN000042772, on 17/12/2020. The study was approved by the Medical Corporation Toukeikai Kitamachi Clinic (IRB registration number: 11001110).

Managing Cough in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.

In many studies, more than one-half of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) endorse cough. In IPF (as in other conditions), when chronic, cough may be frustrating and lead to significant impairments in quality of life. In patients with IPF, comorbid conditions such as gastroesophageal reflux can cause or contribute to cough; when stemming from IPF itself, chronic cough likely arises from multiple mechanisms including mechanical and neurosensory changes. In this article, we review our approach at attempting to identify causes of chronic cough in patients with IPF; these include gastroesophageal reflux disease or upper airway cough syndrome and IPF itself. We cursorily summarize the current evidence for the treatment of chronic cough in IPF, briefly review data on the treatment of unexplained chronic cough and extrapolate it to the treatment of refractory cough in IPF, but we focus our attention on our approaches to evaluation and management, recognizing that some may not be supported by a robust cache of data.

Characterization of Patients With Refractory or Unexplained Chronic Cough Participating in a Phase 2 Clinical Trial of the P2X3-Receptor Antagonist Gefapixant.

PURPOSE: This analysis assesses clinical characteristics of patients with refractory chronic cough (RCC) or unexplained chronic cough (UCC) enrolled in a phase 2 study to better understand this patient population. METHODS: Patients with RCC/UCC lasting for ≥ 1 year and cough severity visual analog scale (VAS) score of > 40 mm at screening were eligible. Demographics, clinical characteristics, and medical history were collected at baseline. Cough-related measures included cough severity VAS, Cough Severity Diary (CSD), Leicester Cough Questionnaire (LCQ), and a structured cough-trigger questionnaire. Medication history included all medications 30 days before screening and chronic cough treatments within 1 year before screening. Data were summarized using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Patients (N = 253; female, 76%; mean age, 60 years) had severe (mean cough severity VAS, 57.5 mm) and long-lasting (median duration, 11 years) cough. The most burdensome self-reported aspects included psychological and social factors (LCQ) and cough frequency and intensity (CSD). Patient-reported triggers were consistent with cough hypersensitivity (e.g., 95% to 96% reported irritation or tickle in throat). Common reported comorbidities included gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD; 56%), allergic rhinitis (47%), and asthma (30%); 12% of patients had been diagnosed with all 3 conditions. The most common prior medications included inhaled or oral steroids (21%), antihistamines (15%), and antacids (15%). CONCLUSION: Patients with RCC/UCC had severe, long-lasting, and burdensome cough with clinical features of cough hypersensitivity. Many patients had been diagnosed with GERD, allergic rhinitis, and asthma but had a persistent cough despite treatment of these conditions. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02612610; registered November 20, 2015.

Artificial intelligence enabled preliminary diagnosis for COVID-19 from voice cues and questionnaires.

The COVID-19 outbreak was announced as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020 and has affected a growing number of people in the past few months. In this context, advanced artificial intelligence techniques are brought to the forefront as a response to the ongoing fight toward reducing the impact of this global health crisis. In this study, potential use-cases of intelligent speech analysis for COVID-19 identification are being developed. By analyzing speech recordings from COVID-19 positive and negative patients, we constructed audio- and symptomatic-based models to automatically categorize the health state of patients, whether they are COVID-19 positive or not. For this purpose, many acoustic features were established, and various machine learning algorithms are being utilized. Experiments show that an average accuracy of 80% was obtained estimating COVID-19 positive or negative, derived from multiple cough and vowel /a/ recordings, and an average accuracy of 83% was obtained estimating COVID-19 positive or negative patients by evaluating six symptomatic questions. We hope that this study can foster an extremely fast, low-cost, and convenient way to automatically detect the COVID-19 disease.

Prevalence and correlates of chronic fatigue syndrome and post-traumatic stress disorder after the outbreak of the COVID-19.

As the SARS-COV-2 becomes a global pandemic, many researchers have a concern about the long COVID-19 complications. Chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) is a persistent, debilitating, and unexplained fatigue disorder. We investigated psychological morbidities such as CFS and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among survivors of COVID-19 over 6 months. All COVID-19 survivors from the university-affiliated hospital of Tehran, Iran, were assessed 6 months after infection onset by a previously validated questionnaire based on the Fukuda guidelines for CFS/EM and DSM-5 Checklist for PTSD (The Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5 or PCL-5) to determine the presence of stress disorder and chronic fatigue problems. A total of 120 patients were enrolled. The prevalence rate of fatigue symptoms was 17.5%. Twelve (10%) screened positive for chronic idiopathic fatigue (CIF), 6 (5%) for CFS-like with insufficient fatigue syndrome (CFSWIFS), and 3 (2.5%) for CFS. The mean total scores in PCL-5 were 9.27 ± 10.76 (range:0-44), and the prevalence rate of PTSD was 5.8%. There was no significant association after adjusting between CFS and PTSD, gender, comorbidities, and chloroquine phosphate administration. The obtained data revealed the prevalence of CFS among patients with COVID-19, which is almost similar to CFS prevalence in the general population. Moreover, PTSD in patients with COVID-19 is not associated with the increased risk of CFS. Our study suggested that medical institutions should pay attention to the psychological consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Gender difference in the association between cough severity and quality of life among patients with postinfectious cough.

BACKGROUND: Despite close link exists between cough severity and quality of life (QoL), whether gender difference is implied in the effect of cough on QoL has not been studied yet. This study primarily aims to investigate whether the association between cough severity and QoL is modified by gender in patients with postinfectious cough. METHODS: Secondary analyses were performed in 180 participants with postinfectious cough in a multisite randomized controlled trial. Baseline demographics, clinical characteristics and score of cough specific quality of life questionnaire (CQLQ) were collected. Linear regression analyses were conducted to examine gender difference in CQLQ score and the association between cough severity and CQLQ score. RESULTS: Difference between women and men was not significant in CQLQ total score in the unadjusted analysis (P = 0.077). Women had a 2.20-point higher CQLQ total score than men (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.11-4.30; P = 0.039), after adjusting for age, cough duration, cough severity, and clinical center. Gender significantly modified the association between cough severity and CQLQ total score (coefficient 1.80, 95% CI 0.29-3.30; P = 0.020), after adjusting for age, cough duration, and study center. An increase of 1-point in cough severity was associated with a 2.55-point (95% CI 1.16-3.95) increase in CQLQ total score in women versus a 1.26-point (95% CI 0.20-2.31) increase in men (P = 0.020). CONCLUSIONS: Female sex may be associated with worse QoL than men, and women's QoL may be more significantly impaired as cough symptom deteriorates. Gender difference should be taken into account in the clinical settings and research of cough and cough related QoL. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTRTRC12002297. Registered 19 June 2012, http://www.chictr.org.cn/abouten.aspx .

Behavioral and Regional Brain Responses to Inhalation of Capsaicin Modified by Painful Conditioning in Humans.

BACKGROUND: Cough is a defense mechanism that protects the airways and lungs in response to airway irritation. The sensory neurons involved in detecting airway irritants and the neural pathways mediating cough share similarities with those that encode pain from the body. Painful conditioning stimuli applied to one body site are known to reduce the perception of pain at another. However, whether the neural regulation of cough is influenced by painful stimuli is not known. RESEARCH QUESTION: What are the behavioral and neural outcomes of painful conditioning stimuli on urge-to-cough (UTC) and cough evoked by inhaled capsaicin? STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Sixteen healthy participants underwent psychophysical testing and functional MRI while completing a series of capsaicin inhalations to induce UTC and cough. The responses associated with capsaicin inhalation without pain were compared with those after the application of painful conditioning stimuli. RESULTS: Significant decreases were seen behaviorally of 18.7% ± 17.3% (P < .001) and 47.0% ± 30.8% (P < .001) in participants' UTC ratings and cough frequencies, respectively, during the application of pain. UTC ratings were reduced by 24.2% ± 36.5% (P < .005) and increased by 67% ± 40% (P < .001) for capsaicin and saline inhalation, respectively, during the scanning session. Painful conditioning stimuli were associated with widespread decreases in regional brain responses to capsaicin inhalation (P < .001). Several brain regions showed levels of reduced activation attributable to painful conditioning that correlated with related changes in behavioral responses during scanning (R2 = 0.53). INTERPRETATION: Pain-related decreases of cough and UTC are accompanied by widespread changes in brain activity during capsaicin inhalation, suggesting that pain can modify the central processing of inputs arising from the airways. A mechanistic understanding of how cough and pain processing interact within the brain may help develop more effective therapies to reduce unwanted coughing.

The impact of believing you have had COVID-19 on self-reported behaviour: Cross-sectional survey.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether people who think they have had COVID-19 are less likely to report engaging with lockdown measures compared with those who think they have not had COVID-19. DESIGN: On-line cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Data were collected between 20th and 22nd April 2020. PARTICIPANTS: 6149 participants living in the UK aged 18 years or over. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Perceived immunity to COVID-19, self-reported adherence to social distancing measures (going out for essential shopping, nonessential shopping, and meeting up with friends/family; total out-of-home activity), worry about COVID-19 and perceived risk of COVID-19 to oneself and people in the UK. Knowledge that cough and high temperature / fever are the main symptoms of COVID-19. We used logistic regression analyses and one-way ANOVAs to investigate associations between believing you had had COVID-19 and binary and continuous outcomes respectively. RESULTS: In this sample, 1493 people (24.3%) thought they had had COVID-19 but only 245 (4.0%) reported having received a positive test result. Reported test results were often incongruent with participants' belief that they had had COVID-19. People who believed that they had had COVID-19 were: more likely to agree that they had some immunity to COVID-19; less likely to report adhering to lockdown measures; less worried about COVID-19; and less likely to know that cough and high temperature / fever are two of the most common symptoms of COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS: At the time of data collection, the percentage of people in the UK who thought they had already had COVID-19 was about twice the estimated infection rate. Those who believed they had had COVID-19 were more likely to report leaving home. This may contribute to transmission of the virus. Clear communications to this growing group are needed to explain why protective measures continue to be important and to encourage sustained adherence.

Predictors of cough-specific and generic quality of life in sarcoidosis patients.

BACKGROUND: Cough is frequent symptom in sarcoidosis and its impact on patient's quality of life (QoL) has not been adequately addressed so far. OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study was to determine the significant predictors of cough-specific and generic QoL in sarcoidosis patients. METHODS: In the prospective study 275 sarcoidosis patients administered Patient Reported Outcomes instruments for measurement of dyspnea (Borg and MRC scales) and fatigue (Fatigue Assessment Scale (FAS) and Daily Activity List (DAL)), as well as patients' QoL (cough-specific Leicester Cough Questionnaire (LCQ) and generic tool - 15D). The LCQ contains 3 domains covering physical, psychological and social aspects of chronic cough. Pulmonary function tests (spirometry and diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide) and serum angiotensin converting enzyme (sACE) were also measured. RESULTS: Dyspnea measured by Borg scale and impairment of daily activities determined by DAL instrument as well as sACE were the strongest predictors of all cough-specific QoL domains. Mental aspect of patients' fatigue was significantly correlated with all domains except with psychological LCQ domain. Regarding the generic QoL, the following significant predictors were: dyspnea measured by MRC scale, overall fatigue determined by FAS and physical domain of the LCQ. CONCLUSION: It is important to measure both cough-specific and generic QoL in sarcoidosis patients since they measure different health aspects and their predictors can be different. We demonstrated that physical domain of cough-specific QoL is significant predictor of generic QoL. (Sarcoidosis Vasc Diffuse Lung Dis 2020; 37 (2): 158-168).

Cluster analysis in 975 patients with current cough identifies a phenotype with several cough triggers, many background disorders, and low quality of life.

BACKGROUND: Recognition of disorder phenotypes may help to estimate prognosis and to guide the clinical management. Current cough management guidelines classify patients according to the duration of the cough episode. However, this classification is not based on phenotype analyses. The present study aimed to identify cough phenotypes by clustering. METHODS: An email survey among employed, working-age subjects identified 975 patients with current cough. All filled in a comprehensive 80-item questionnaire including the Leicester Cough Questionnaire. Phenotypes were identified utilizing K-means partitional clustering. A subgroup filled in a follow-up questionnaire 12 months later to investigate the possible differences in the prognosis between the phenotypes. RESULTS: Two clusters were found. The cluster A included 608 patients (62.4% of the population) and the cluster B 367 patients (37.6%). The three most important variables to separate the clusters were the number of the triggers of cough (mean 2.63 (SD 2.22) vs. 6.95 (2.30), respectively, p < 0.001), the number of the cough background disorders (chronic rhinosinusitis, current asthma, gastroesophageal reflux disease, 0.29 (0.50) vs. 1.28 (0.75), respectively, p < 0.001), and the Leicester Cough Questionnaire physical domain (5.33 (0.76) vs. 4.25 (0.84), respectively, p < 0.001). There were significant interrelationships between these three variables (each p < 0.001). Duration of the episode was not among the most important variables to separate the clusters. At 12 months, 27.0% of the patients of the cluster A and 46.1% of the patients of the cluster B suffered from cough that had continued without interruptions from the first survey (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Two cough phenotypes could be identified. Cluster A represents phenotype A, which includes the majority of patients and has a tendency to heal by itself. The authors propose that cluster B represents phenotype TBQ (Triggers, Background disorders, Quality of life impairment). Given the poor prognosis of this phenotype, it urges a prompt and comprehensive clinical evaluation regardless of the duration of the cough episode.

Pediatric Quality-of-Life Scores Following a Multidisciplinary Aerodigestive Team Approach to Manage Chronic Cough.

OBJECTIVES: Chronic recalcitrant cough is present in 2/3 of pediatric patients evaluated in our tertiary-care multidisciplinary aerodigestive clinic (ADC). This study aimed to determine the impact of chronic cough and efficacy of ADC treatment using the validated Pediatric-Cough Quality-of-Life-27 tool (PC-QOL-27). METHODS: The PC-QOL-27 survey was administered to ADC patients with chronic cough at initial clinic visit and 6 to 12 weeks after cough management. Pre and post survey scores, demographic data, treatment and evaluation season were collected over 16 months. RESULTS: Twenty parents completed pre and post PC-QOL-27 surveys (mean 12.1 weeks later). Patient median age was 6.04 years (IQR: 2.2-10.44 years). A total of 65% were males and 65% were African American. Management was tailored based on clinical assessment and diagnostic studies, including direct laryngoscopy/bronchoscopy (4), pulmonary function tests (PFT's 9), esophagogastroduodenoscopy (9), and flexible bronchoscopy/lavage (9).Following ADC management, changes in physical, social and psychological domain scores of the PC-QOL-27 each met the threshold for minimal clinical important difference (MCID) indicating a clinically meaningful improvement. Improvements were most notable in the physical domain where post survey scores significantly improved from pre-survey scores (P = .009) regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, history of endoscopy and season. CONCLUSIONS: The physical impact of chronic cough in pediatric patients who failed prior management by a single specialist was lessened by an ADC team approach to management.

Automatic Recognition, Segmentation, and Sex Assignment of Nocturnal Asthmatic Coughs and Cough Epochs in Smartphone Audio Recordings: Observational Field Study.

BACKGROUND: Asthma is one of the most prevalent chronic respiratory diseases. Despite increased investment in treatment, little progress has been made in the early recognition and treatment of asthma exacerbations over the last decade. Nocturnal cough monitoring may provide an opportunity to identify patients at risk for imminent exacerbations. Recently developed approaches enable smartphone-based cough monitoring. These approaches, however, have not undergone longitudinal overnight testing nor have they been specifically evaluated in the context of asthma. Also, the problem of distinguishing partner coughs from patient coughs when two or more people are sleeping in the same room using contact-free audio recordings remains unsolved. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate the automatic recognition and segmentation of nocturnal asthmatic coughs and cough epochs in smartphone-based audio recordings that were collected in the field. We also aimed to distinguish partner coughs from patient coughs in contact-free audio recordings by classifying coughs based on sex. METHODS: We used a convolutional neural network model that we had developed in previous work for automated cough recognition. We further used techniques (such as ensemble learning, minibatch balancing, and thresholding) to address the imbalance in the data set. We evaluated the classifier in a classification task and a segmentation task. The cough-recognition classifier served as the basis for the cough-segmentation classifier from continuous audio recordings. We compared automated cough and cough-epoch counts to human-annotated cough and cough-epoch counts. We employed Gaussian mixture models to build a classifier for cough and cough-epoch signals based on sex. RESULTS: We recorded audio data from 94 adults with asthma (overall: mean 43 years; SD 16 years; female: 54/94, 57%; male 40/94, 43%). Audio data were recorded by each participant in their everyday environment using a smartphone placed next to their bed; recordings were made over a period of 28 nights. Out of 704,697 sounds, we identified 30,304 sounds as coughs. A total of 26,166 coughs occurred without a 2-second pause between coughs, yielding 8238 cough epochs. The ensemble classifier performed well with a Matthews correlation coefficient of 92% in a pure classification task and achieved comparable cough counts to that of human annotators in the segmentation of coughing. The count difference between automated and human-annotated coughs was a mean -0.1 (95% CI -12.11, 11.91) coughs. The count difference between automated and human-annotated cough epochs was a mean 0.24 (95% CI -3.67, 4.15) cough epochs. The Gaussian mixture model cough epoch-based sex classification performed best yielding an accuracy of 83%. CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed longitudinal nocturnal cough and cough-epoch recognition from nightly recorded smartphone-based audio from adults with asthma. The model distinguishes partner cough from patient cough in contact-free recordings by identifying cough and cough-epoch signals that correspond to the sex of the patient. This research represents a step towards enabling passive and scalable cough monitoring for adults with asthma.

The Effect of Forced Cough to Minimize Pain and Discomfort at the Time of Colposcopy-Guided Cervical Biopsy.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to determine whether forced cough during colposcopy-guided cervical biopsy affected pain and anxiety levels. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was conducted at the University Hospital (Newark, NJ) Ambulatory Care Center from December 2016 to June 2018 and evaluated 110 patients at the time of a colposcopy-guided cervical biopsy. Study patients were randomized to either cough or no cough group during the biopsy procedure. Pain level was assessed using a visual analog pain scale before, during, and immediately after a colposcopy-guided cervical biopsy. Study patients also completed a standardized anxiety survey before and after the procedure. T tests, Pearson χ, or Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel were used to compare baseline characteristics between the cough and no cough groups. Multivariate linear regression analysis was used to identify potential confounders and then compare pain levels across both groups. RESULTS: There was no statistically significant difference in pain scores between the cough and no cough group when analyzed for each demographic variable even when confounders were accounted for. The anxiety scores for both study groups before and after the procedure were similar and not significantly reduced. CONCLUSIONS: We observed a trend that cough reduced pain associated with the colposcopy-guided cervical biopsy but did not reach statistical significance. A similar outcome was observed in anxiety level, where anxiety was reduced in the cough group but was not statistically significant as compared with the no cough group. Further studies are necessary to assess various modalities in reducing pain and anxiety associated with colposcopy-guided cervical biopsy.

A new simple score of chronic cough: cough evaluation test.

BACKGROUND: Chronic cough has an important impact on physical, social and psychological aspects. A simple and effective method to assess different aspects of chronic cough severity is required. We aimed to develop a simple, self-completed test, Cough Evaluation Test (CET), to evaluate cough severity and its impact on health. METHOD: The items of preliminary CET were generated based on literature review and clinical practice. Items reduction was conducted by modified Delphi method. Patients with chronic cough were recruited to complete CET, Cough Visual Analog Scales (VAS), Mandarin Chinese version of the Leicester Cough Questionnaire (LCQ-MC), and Cough Symptom Score (CSS). Reassessments were performed at 1 week apart before treatment, and after more than 2 weeks treatments. Concurrent validation, internal consistency, repeatability, responsiveness and the minimal important difference (MID) were determined. RESULTS: CET consists of five items with a 5-point Likert scale (1-5 scaling of items, 5-25 score range). The Cronbach's alpha values for CET was 0.80. CET showed a stronger correlation with LCQ-MC (r = - 0.74) compared to that between LCQ-MC with VAS (r = - 0.61). CET also showed a stronger correlation with VAS (r = 0.70) compared to that between VAS with other measures. Intraclass correlation coefficients for CET was 0.84. In patients undergoing treatment, CET scores significantly changed (p < 0.0001). The MID of CET was 2. CONCLUSION: Cough Evaluate Test is a reliable, valid and responsive tool to simply evaluate impact of cough on physical, social and psychological aspects.

Acquisition and generalization of cough trigger beliefs in allergic rhinitis.

In allergic conditions, trigger identification is often inaccurate, and may be influenced by pre-existing beliefs. In this study, we investigated the acquisition and generalization of symptom trigger beliefs in individuals with allergic rhinitis (n = 24) and control participants (n = 24). In a lab-based trigger acquisition task, unique exemplars of two trigger categories were either paired with saline inhalation (CS- category) or citric acid inhalation (CS+ category). The next day, we tested recognition and symptom expectancy for CS category exemplars and exemplars of novel trigger categories. Participants acquired differential symptom expectancies for CS+ compared to CS- exemplars, with faster acquisition in participants with rhinitis. Differential symptom expectancies persisted the next day, and generalized to novel trigger categories, with stronger generalization in rhinitis vs. control participants. These patterns of acquisition and generalization suggest that overgeneralization of trigger beliefs may complicate trigger identification in participants with allergic conditions.

Psychological distress at hospital admission is related to symptoms severity and health status in malignant pleural effusion patients.

OBJECTIVE: The incidence and associated healthcare costs of malignant pleural effusion (MPE) are expected to rise, but there is limited evidence about which factors affect patients' prognosis. So, the aim of this study was to determine whether psychological distress at hospital admission is associated with symptom severity and health status in patients with MPE. METHODS: A longitudinal observational prospective cohort study was carried out in the Pulmonology Service of the Granada University Hospital Complex in Granada, Spain. Patients diagnosed with MPE were included and evaluated at hospital admission, at discharge and at one month after discharge. Outcome measures included symptom severity (i.e. dyspnoea, pain and cough) and health status (functionality and self-perceived health status). RESULTS: Significant differences were found in symptoms and the health status, with worse results in the group with psychological distress at discharge. One month after discharge, MPE patients with psychological distress exhibited greater symptoms, including more cough and dyspnoea (p < .05). Moreover, these patients showed worse functionality (p < .05) and self-perceived health status (p < .05). CONCLUSION: Psychological distress is an important factor to take into account in patients with MPE. The presence of psychological distress appears to increase the symptoms and is associated with worse health status after hospitalisation.

Chronic cough, not asthma, is associated with depression in the elderly: a community-based population analysis in South Korea.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Depression and allergic diseases, including asthma, are frequently reported as comorbid conditions. However, their associations have been rarely examined in community-based elderly populations. METHODS: The analyses were performed using the baseline data set of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Health and Aging, which consists of 1,000 elderly participants (aged > 65 years) randomly recruited from an urban community. Depression was assessed using the Geriatric Depression Scale, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, and Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression. Major and minor depressive disorders were diagnosed by psychiatrists. Allergic conditions were assessed using structured questionnaires, lung function, and skin prick test. Quality of life and comorbidities were assessed using structured questionnaires. RESULTS: Prevalence of asthma and major depressive disorder were 5.4% and 5.3%, respectively. The rate of depression was not significantly different between the non-asthmatic and asthmatic groups. No correlation was observed between the scores obtained using the depression scales and self-reported asthma. However, chronic, frequent, and nocturnal cough were significantly associated with depression and scores obtained using the depression scales, which remained significant in multivariate logistic regression analyses (chronic cough: odds ratio [OR], 3.23; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.57 to 12.74; p = 0.04). Rhinitis was independently associated with high Mini-Mental State Examination scores (OR, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.05 to 1.17; p < 0.001) and low 36-item short-form (OR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.80 to 0.98; p = 0.002). CONCLUSION: Depression may not be significantly associated with asthma and allergic diseases in elderly populations, but cough is a significant factor affecting depression.

Dual Tasking Influences Cough Sensorimotor Outcomes in Healthy Young Adults.

Purpose Reflex cough is an essential airway protective mechanism that often occurs in the context of divided attention. The effect of divided attention on measures of reflexive cough airflow and sensitivity remains unknown. We present findings from a study testing the effects of divided attention (via a dual-task paradigm) on measures of reflex cough in healthy young adults. Method Volunteers (N = 20, age = 20-40 years) underwent 4 blocks of capsaicin-induced cough challenges. Within each block, capsaicin ranging from 0 to 200 µM was presented in a randomized order. Two blocks consisted of cough testing only (single task). During the other 2 blocks, participants counted tones while simultaneously undergoing cough testing (dual task). Measures of cough motor response, self-reported urge-to-cough, cough frequency, and cough airflow were collected. Results Participants coughed more in the single-task condition compared to the dual-task condition (p ≤ .001). Participants' urge-to-cough ratings were lower in the dual-task condition (x̅ = 2, "slight") compared to the single-task condition (x̅ = 3, "moderate"; p = .007). Participants' cough reflex sensitivity thresholds were significantly increased in the dual-task condition (p = .002). Cough peak expiratory flow rates did not change between the 2 conditions (p = .34). Conclusions Somatosensation of tussive stimuli changes during dual tasking. Abnormal cortical resource allocation may be a mechanism involved in silent aspiration.