1. Cough is a common symptom of respiratory tract, which is caused by inflammation, foreign body, physical or chemical stimulation of trachea, bronchial mucosa or pleura. First, the glottis closes, the respiratory muscles contract, and the pressure in the lungs increases, then the glottis opens, and the air in the lungs is exhausted, usually accompanied by sound. Cough has a protective effect on removing foreign bodies and secretions from respiratory tract. However, if the cough keeps changing from acute to chronic, it will often bring great pain to patients, such as chest tightness, itchy throat and asthma. Cough can be accompanied by expectoration.
Second, inhalants.
Inhalations can be divided into two types: specific and nonspecific. The former such as dust mites, pollen, fungi, animal dander and so on. Nonspecific inhalants, such as sulfuric acid, sulfur dioxide, chloramine, etc. Specific inhalants for occupational cough, such as toluene diisocyanate, phthalic anhydride, ethylenediamine, penicillin, protease, amylase, silk, animal dander or excrement, etc. In addition, nonspecific ones include formaldehyde and formic acid.
Third, food.
Cough attacks caused by diet are more common in cough patients, especially infants who are prone to food allergies, but gradually decrease with age. The most common foods that cause allergies are fish, shrimp, crab, eggs and milk.
Fourth, exercise.
70% ~ 80% of cough patients induce cough after strenuous exercise, which is called exercise cough or exercise cough. Clinical manifestations include cough, chest tightness, shortness of breath, wheezing, auscultation and wheezing. Some patients have no typical asthma after exercise, but bronchospasm can be found by lung function examination before and after exercise.
5. Because cough is a nonspecific symptom of many diseases, it is necessary to inquire about the medical history in detail, do a comprehensive physical examination, do chest X-ray or CT, measure airway reactivity, lung function, electrocardiogram, fiberoptic bronchoscopy and some special examinations, and exclude some other diseases that can cause chronic intractable cough.
Six, ordinary X-ray can detect most of the lung lesions, according to the location, scope and shape of the lesions can sometimes determine their nature, such as pneumonia, lung abscess, pulmonary cyst, tuberculosis, lung cancer, pneumoconiosis, etc. For deep lesions, the advantages of X-ray tomography, CT and MRI examination and CT scanning are that there is no image overlap in cross-sectional images, and lesions that cannot be displayed by X-ray chest films can be found.