Korean J Asthma Allergy Clin Immunol.  2005 Mar;25(1):45-51.

Serial Change of Airway Hyper-responsiveness in Patients with Cough Variant Asthma and Idiopathic Chronic Cough

Abstract

BACKGROUND
There are still some controversies in the progression and the effects of long term anti-inflammatory treatment on the cough variant asthma and idiopathic chronic cough.
OBJECTIVE
This study was aimed to see whether the airway hyper-responsiveness would persist or worsen in case of relapsing cough after stopping the anti-inflammatory therapy in cough variant asthma and idiopathic chronic cough. METHOD: Twenty two patients with cough variant asthma (group A) who revisited the hospital due to chronic cough after over two years of discontinuation of treatment were retrospectively studied and compared with 10 patients with idiopathic chronic cough (group B). Optionally, we defined the aggravation of airway hyper-responsiveness when the percent decrease of PC20 over 30%. RESULT: The initial and follow up mean PC20 of the patients with group A was 14.5+/-7.6 mg/mL and 19.6+/-13.4 mg/mL and that of the patients with group B was 43.6+/-7.9 mg/mL and 31.5+/-16.5 mg/mL (P>0.05). The change of mean PC20 was greater in group B (-12.1 mg/mL) than in group A (5 mg/mL). Forty percent of group B showed more aggravation of the airway hyper-responsiveness in compared with 27% of group A. CONCLUSION: We observed that airway hyper-responsiveness was aggravated in some patients of both of cough variant asthma and idiopathic chronic cough groups. It suggests the importance of the serial follow up of airway hyper-responsiveness in those groups.

MeSH Terms

Asthma*
Cough*
Follow-Up Studies
Humans
Retrospective Studies