[Significance of the "21-day cough" and the patient with "variable bronchitis"]

The word formations "21-day-cough" and "contrast-articular bronchitics" have become a fixed term in the practice of pneumology. They signal possible pulmonary diseases, especially tuberculosis or bronchial carcinoma. In many countries they have become the method of choice for recognition of several pulmonary diseases, particulary pulmonary tuberculosis.