Chest
Original ResearchSigns and Symptoms of Chest DiseasesBronchoscopic and High-Resolution CT Scan Findings in Children With Chronic Wet Cough
Section snippets
Study Population and Protocol
We retrospectively evaluated all children referred for chronic wet cough to the Allergy-Pneumonology Department of Penteli Children's Hospital from May 1996 through February 2010. Chronic wet cough was defined as a moist- or wet-sounding cough that occurred almost daily for > 6 weeks without improvement. Characterization of cough quality was based on parental report and was corroborated by a physician during the clinic visit. Wheeze, when present, was also confirmed by a physician. Atopy was
Results
The medical charts of 102 children who underwent HRCT scan, underwent FB, and fulfilled the inclusion criteria were reviewed for the purpose of this study. Ninety-three patients (age range 0.6-16.4 years) had complete clinical, radiographic, and bronchoscopic data and composed the study population. The patient characteristics are shown in Table 1. Thirty-two children (34.4%) had cough for > 6 weeks but < 3 months, 20 (21.5%) for > 3 months but < 1 year, and 41 (44.1%) for > 1 year. The presence
Discussion
This study of a selected childhood population referred to a specialized center for chronic wet cough, which was not deemed to be due to asthma, showed that the severity of the radiologic findings on HRCT scan correlates positively with the duration of wet cough and with the intensity of the neutrophilic inflammation in the airways. More importantly, FB with BAL proved more sensitive than HRCT scan in detecting airway pathology in these children, whereas high radiologic scores are associated
Acknowledgments
Author contributions: Dr Douros: contributed to evaluation of flexible bronchoscopy videos, analyzing the data, and drafting the manuscript, and contributed to and approved the final manuscript.
Dr Alexopoulou: contributed to evaluating chest radiographs and high-resolution CT scans and contributed to and approved the final manuscript.
Dr Nicopoulou: contributed to collecting the data and contributed to and approved the final manuscript.
Dr Anthracopoulos: contributed to designing the study,
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Funding/Support: The authors have reported to CHEST that no funding was received for this study.
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