3 Causes Found for Kids' Chronic Cough
Doctors in Louisiana have identified three leading causes
of chronic cough in children.
Those chronic cough causes are:
- Allergy
- Gastroesophageal reflux
disease (GERD) - Asthma
That's according to Dean Edell, MD, MPH, and colleagues at West
Jefferson Medical Center in Marrero, La.
They did thorough checkups on 40 children (average age: 9) with chronic
cough (cough lasting more than eight weeks).
None of the children had been born prematurely or exposed to tobacco smoke.
The kids got chest X-rays and various medical tests, including allergy and lung
function tests.
Edell's team concluded that allergy, GERD, or asthma "are likely to
account" for chronic cough in 90% of the children with chronic cough that
they studied.
Those three conditions -- allergy, GERD, and asthma -- may be a good
starting point for treating children with chronic cough, according to Edell and
colleagues.
They presented their findings today in Chicago at CHEST 2007, the annual
international scientific meeting of the American College of Chest
Physicians.
By Miranda Hitti
Reviewed by Louise Chang
©2005-2006 WebMD, Inc. All rights reserved