Cough:

A chronic cough is a cough that lasts eight weeks or longer in adults, or four weeks in children.

A chronic cough is more than just an annoyance. A chronic cough can interrupt your sleep and leave you feeling exhausted. Severe cases of chronic cough can cause vomiting, lightheadedness and even rib fractures.

Symptoms:

A chronic cough can occur with other signs and symptoms, which may include:

• A runny or stuffy nose
• A feeling of liquid running down the back of your throat (postnasal drip)
• Frequent throat clearing and sore throat
• Hoarseness
• Wheezing and shortness of breath
• Heartburn or a sour taste in your mouth
• In rare cases, coughing up blood

Causes:

The following causes, alone or in combination, are responsible for the majority of cases of chronic cough:

• Postnasal drip. When your nose or sinuses produce extra mucus, it can drip down the back of your throat and trigger your cough reflex. This condition is also called upper airway cough syndrome (UACS).
• Asthma. An asthma-related cough may come and go with the seasons, appear after an upper respiratory tract infection, or become worse when you're exposed to cold air or certain chemicals or fragrances. In one type of asthma (cough-variant asthma), a cough is the main symptom.
• Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). In this common condition, stomach acid flows back into the tube that connects your stomach and throat (esophagus). The constant irritation can lead to chronic coughing. The coughing, in turn, worsens GERD — a vicious cycle.
• Infections. A cough can linger long after other symptoms of pneumonia, flu, a cold or other infection of the upper respiratory tract have gone away. A common but under-recognized cause of a chronic cough in adults is pertussis, also known as whooping cough. Chronic cough can also occur with fungal infections of the lung, tuberculosis (TB) infection or lung infection with nontuberculous mycobacterial organisms.

Clinical Trials:

If approved, AF-219 would be the first new cough drug in 50 years and offer hope to the millions of people living with chronic cough…

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is to participate in a clinical trial to test a promising new treatment for chronic cough.

If approved, AF-219 would be the first new cough drug in 50 years and offer hope to the millions of people living with chronic cough for whom few, if any, effective treatments exist.

A cough is considered to be chronic when a patient has experienced coughing for eight weeks or more, with many patients living with the condition for years and even decades without effective treatment. Some patients experience coughing that is so severe it can lead to them vomiting or losing consciousness. While it is not known exactly how many people suffer from chronic cough, it is thought to affect around 12-15 percent of the population.

• Thanks and Regards,
• Alpine
• Associate Editor
• Journal of Clinical Trials
• clinicaltrials@eclinicalsci.com