ABSTRACT
<p><b>Purpose: </b>This study was conducted to evaluate our diagnostic and therapeutic system using patient checklists, scoring sheet and standardized treatment regimen for the patients with subacute/chronic cough without abnormal chest X-ray findings.</p><p><b>Methods: </b>Based on our clinical system, we had diagnosed and treated 120 patients with subacute/chronic cough without abnormal chest X-ray findings. We also examined 83 cases that were available for evaluation of therapeutic response at the time of second visit.</p><p><b>Results: </b>The mean patient age was 48.4 years (range 21 to 74 years). Thirty-three of the patients were men, 50 were women. Forty-nine cases (59.0%) were diagnosed as "Allergic cough" (such as bronchial asthma, cough-variant asthma, or atopic cough). At the time of the second visit, 67 (80.7%) patients exhibited significant or moderate improvement of their symptoms (49 cases; significant improvement, 18 cases; moderate improvement).</p><p><b>Conclusion: </b>Our clinical system may be useful for patients with subacute/chronic cough. Further clinical investigation is needed.</p>
ABSTRACT
Objective: This study was aimed to evaluate the prevalence of pertussis in adolescents and adults with cough lasting more than 14 days and less than 30 days. Methods: This is a prospective observational study in interepidemic period of pertusis. Ten public health outpatient clinics in the city of Recife, Brazil, were randomly selected for the study. The study population consisted of individuals aged 10 years and over with cough that had lasted between 14 and 30 days. Nasopharyngeal swabs were collected for culture and PCR in order to identify Bordetella pertussis. We adopted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US (CDC) definition of cases of pertussis. Results: A total of 192 individuals were identified as suspected cases. Their mean age was 40.7 years. Pertussis was confirmed in 10 of the 192 suspected cases, with an estimated prevalence of 5.21% (95% confidence interval 2.03-8.38). All cases met the clinical case definition for pertussis; one suspect had both culture and PCR positive. PCR confirmed 100% of the cases, 7/10 by PCR and 3/10 by epidemiological linkage with a case confirmed by PCR. Conclusion: During an interepidemic period, 1 in 20 cases of prolonged cough had pertussis, suggesting this is an important cause of prolonged cough in adolescents and adults. .