cough

Also known as coughing

A cough is a sudden expulsion of air through the large breathing passages which can help clear them of fluids, irritants, foreign particles and microbes. As a protective reflex, coughing can be repetitive with the cough reflex following three phases: an inhalation, a forced exhalation against a closed glottis, and a violent release of air from the lungs following opening of the glottis, usually accompanied by a distinctive sound. Coughing into one's elbow or toward the ground—rather than forward at breathing height—can reduce the spread of infectious droplets in the air.

OverviewAI-generated

Cough is a medical subject indexed under the International Classification for Primary Care 2 (ICPC 2) with the identifier R05. It is categorized in the NCI Thesaurus as C37935. The term is also represented in Japanese kana as がいそう.

Academic literature regarding cough is extensive, with 88,002 articles recorded in PubMed under the query "cough." Additionally, the subject is referenced by 642 other encyclopedia articles within the Vinony graph.

Synthesized by Vinony from 8 facts across 3 sources: Wikidata, PubMed, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Key facts

Medical condition.name: Cough
Medical condition.image: File:Toux impromptue.jpg
Medical condition.specialty: Pulmonology, otorhinolaryngology

via Wikipedia infobox

Research

88,002 papers

Current understanding of Bordetella-induced cough.ReviewMicrobiology and immunology · 2024Horiguchi YDOI: 10.1111/1348-0421.13119
How often do healthy people cough?Respiratory research · 2023Holt KJ, Smith JADOI: 10.1186/s12931-023-02585-1
Cough: what's in a name?ReviewThe European respiratory journal · 2006Widdicombe J, Fontana GDOI: 10.1183/09031936.06.00096905
Cough dynamics in adults receiving tuberculosis treatment.PloS one · 2020Lee GO, Comina G, Hernandez-Cordova G et al.DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0231167
Longitudinal Cough Frequency Monitoring in Persistent Coughers: Daily Variability and Predictability.Lung · 2024Chung KF, Chaccour C, Jover L et al.DOI: 10.1007/s00408-024-00734-x
[Cough--diversity and the peripheral mechanisms of production].ReviewNihon yakurigaku zasshi. Folia pharmacologica Japonica · 1995Takahama K, Miyata TDOI: 10.1254/fpj.105.41
Cough reduction using capsaicin.Respiratory medicine · 2015Ternesten-Hasséus E, Johansson EL, Millqvist EDOI: 10.1016/j.rmed.2014.11.001
The Cough Response to Inhaled Mannitol in Healthy Subjects.Lung · 2024Nurmi HM, Lätti AM, Koskela HODOI: 10.1007/s00408-024-00755-6

via PubMed

~14 min read

Encyclopedic overview

22 sections

Contents

Presentation
Complications
Differential diagnosis
Infections
Reactive airway disease
Gastroesophageal reflux
Air pollution
Foreign body
Drug-induced cough
Habit cough
Neurogenic cough
Other
Airway clearance
Pathophysiology
Diagnostic approach
Classification
Treatment
Epidemiology
Other animals
References
Further reading
External links

Frequent coughing usually indicates the presence of a disease. Many viruses and bacteria benefit, from an evolutionary perspective, by causing the host to cough, which helps to spread the disease to new hosts. Irregular coughing is usually caused by a respiratory tract infection but can also be triggered by choking, smoking, air pollution, asthma, gastroesophageal reflux disease, post-nasal drip, chronic bronchitis, lung tumors, heart failure and medications such as angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors (ACE inhibitors) and beta blockers.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “cough” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.