[Causes of chronic cough in children: an analysis of 111 cases]

To investigate the causes of chronic cough in children.

A prospective cohort study was performed on 111 children with chronic cough who were referred to the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University between December 2008 and January 2011. The causes of chronic cough were investigted.

Cough variant asthma (45 cases, 40.5%) was the most common cause of chronic cough, followed by upper airway cough syndrome (34 cases, 30.6%), postinfectious cough (19 cases, 17.1%), allergic cough (5 cases, 4.5%), Tourette's syndrome (4 cases, 3.6%), psychogenic cough (1 case, 0.9%) and endobronchial tuberculosis (1 case, 0.9%). The causes were not identified in 2 cases (1.8%). A single cause for chronic cough was noted in 60 patients (54.1%), and multiple potential causes were noted in 49 patients (44.1%), including two coexisting causes in 47 patients (42.3%) and three in 2 patients (1.8%).

The top three causes of chronic cough in children are cough variant asthma, upper airway cough syndrome and postinfectious cough.