Pediatria pre prax 6/2006

CHRONIC COUGH IN CHILDREN

Chronic cough is common and solving of this problem is difficult for the patiens, their parents as for the doctors, too. Succesfull treatment of chronic cough needs good diagnostics, finding the cause of the cough and causal treatment. The most common causes of the chronic cough are postviral cough, postnasal drip syndrome, asthma bronchiale and gastroesophageal reflux. Basic evaluation include medical history, fysical examination, basic lab, chest X ray, spirometry and ENT examination. Symptoms of the causal diseases are often atypical and sometimes there is more than one reason for the chronic cough. Once a reasonable cause of the chronic cough is suspected, the therapeutical trial is recommended. The succes of this therapy is supposed to be the confirmation of the diagnosis.

Keywords: chronic cough, diagnostics, therapy.