In line with its mission, the Editorial Board of MedTvoiLokony makes every effort to provide reliable medical content supported by the latest scientific knowledge. The additional flag “Checked Content” indicates that the article has been reviewed by or written directly by a physician. This two-step verification: a medical journalist and a doctor allows us to provide the highest quality content in line with current medical knowledge.
Our commitment in this area has been appreciated, among others, by by the Association of Journalists for Health, which awarded the Editorial Board of MedTvoiLokony with the honorary title of the Great Educator.
A cough is a type of reflex whose task is to cleanse and protect the respiratory tract against secretions and foreign bodies. In situations such as choking, it is a reflex that saves our lives.
It is also the most common symptom of respiratory diseases. Due to the duration of the cough, it is referred to as acute cough, which lasts up to 3 weeks, or subacute cough, which lasts up to 8 weeks. A cough that lasts more than 8 weeks is a chronic cough.
In medical practice, apart from the duration of the symptom, the nature of the cough is also very important. The so-called a dry cough is a situation in which the cough does not make up the mucus. It is a very unpleasant symptom for the patient, resulting from irritation of the bronchial mucosa, throat or larynx. This often happens in the course of viral infections of the upper respiratory tract. Viruses do not cause purulent discharge in the respiratory tract, but by multiplying in the bronchial epithelium, they damage it. Damaged epithelium overreacts to various types of stimuli. Even faster airflow when talking, laughing violently or breathing faster during exercise can irritate him. These situations often contribute to bouts of dry, tiring cough that resolves as the epithelium of the respiratory tract rebuilds after the infection has cleared. In addition to viral infections, the causes of dry cough include: asthma (here, however, the symptoms are often chronic), drugs (e.g. used in the treatment of hypertension), heart diseases (circulatory failure, pulmonary hypertension).
A wet cough, also known as a productive or a moist cough, is a situation in which a cough causes the sputum to be produced. The sputum itself may be purulent (yellowish or greenish in color, thick) or mucinous (transparent, whitish). A very disturbing symptom is the presence of blood in the sputum, which requires further urgent diagnosis. The presence of a cough with purulent sputum production is characteristic of bacterial infections of the respiratory tract: sinusitis, purulent bronchitis (in fact very rare, because up to 90% of bronchitis is viral), pneumonia. A productive chronic cough with a thick mucus discharge in the morning is an axial symptom of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD – a chronic inflammatory disease of the bronchi with emphysema that affects mainly smokers). In the case of viral infections of the upper respiratory tract, it is also possible to develop a cough with a small amount of mucus discharge.
Various types of symptomatic medications are used to treat cough. However, drugs that inhibit the cough reflex are reserved for situations in which the cough is dry, most often in the course of viral infections (the treatment of cough in asthma is based on completely different preparations). It should be remembered that blocking the cough reflex in the case of bacterial infections with a large amount of residual mucus is a mistake and may worsen the course of the disease. In the event of retention of secretions in the respiratory tract, various types of expectorants are used, which paradoxically intensify cough, but facilitate clearing the respiratory tract of the residual secretion.