Measurement of cough

Area of Science:

• Pulmonology
• Clinical Measurement
• Respiratory Medicine

Background:

• Cough is a prevalent symptom, necessitating accurate assessment for effective clinical management and research.
• Current assessment methods include subjective patient scores, quality of life impact, and objective cough counts, but a comprehensive understanding is lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review current methods for cough assessment, including subjective and objective measures.
• To highlight the need for standardized measures of cough intensity and its relationship to cough reflex sensitivity.

Main Methods:

• Review of existing literature on cough assessment tools and methodologies.
• Discussion of patient-reported outcomes, objective cough monitoring devices, and cough reflex testing (e.g., citric acid, capsaicin).

Main Results:

• Various tools exist to measure cough severity, quality of life impact, and cough counts.
• The relationship between objective cough counts and perceived severity remains unclear.
• Cough reflex sensitivity, measured via challenges like citric acid, offers insights but needs integration with other measures.

Conclusions:

• Standardized methods are needed to correlate cough counts, intensity, and reflex sensitivity for comprehensive cough assessment.
• Further research is required to understand the interrelationships between different cough measurement techniques.
• Accurate and multifaceted cough assessment is vital for advancing therapeutic interventions and understanding cough pathophysiology.