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Related Experiment Videos

Cough induced by low pH.

C H Wong1, R Matai, A H Morice

  • 1Northern General Hospital, Sheffield, U.K.

Respiratory Medicine
|August 28, 1999
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

This study found that citric, acetic, and phosphoric acids all trigger a similar cough reflex, suggesting a common mechanism related to airway surface liquid pH. Capsaicin, however, acts through a different pathway.

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Area of Science:

  • Respiratory physiology
  • Neuroscience of cough reflex

Background:

  • Citric acid is a known tussive agent used to study the cough reflex.
  • The precise mechanism by which acids stimulate cough remains incompletely understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare the cough response elicited by citric acid with that of acetic acid (organic) and phosphoric acid (inorganic).
  • To investigate whether citric acid and capsaicin, a non-acid tussive stimulus, share common cough-inducing pathways.

Main Methods:

  • Subjects inhaled equimolar concentrations of citric and acetic acid (Study 1).
  • Subjects inhaled citric acid and phosphoric acid at similar pH levels (Study 2).
  • Cough thresholds (concentration causing two coughs) were calculated and correlated between stimuli.

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Main Results:

  • Significant correlations were found between cough thresholds for citric acid vs. acetic acid (r = 0.79, P < 0.0001) and citric acid vs. phosphoric acid (r = 0.68, P = 0.0005).
  • No significant correlation was observed between cough thresholds for citric acid and capsaicin.
  • Individual cough responses to these acids were similar.

Conclusions:

  • Acetic acid and phosphoric acid likely induce cough via a common mechanism with citric acid, potentially involving the disturbance of airway surface liquid pH.
  • Capsaicin appears to utilize a distinct pathway for cough stimulation, separate from that of these acids.