Cough is not a big problem for many people, and it may not be long before it gets better on its own. However, Ms. Li (surname Hua) from Wuhan has recently been suffering from chronic cough and was tortured repeatedly. She went to Wuhan Puren Hospital for treatment and found out that she was actually entangled with a “mutated disease”.
Ms. Li is 32 years old this year. She loves all kinds of flowers on weekdays. Now it is the season of warm spring and flowers blooming. Ms. Li will not miss this great opportunity to enjoy flowers. After tea and dinner, she will go for a walk in the park near her home. Enjoying the flowers, but I never thought that I would start coughing after returning home.
“It’s been more than a month and I still have intermittent dry cough. A little bit of cold wind will make the cough worse. After taking cold granules, cough medicine and anti-inflammatory drugs for a long time, it doesn’t get better, especially at night. Because my frequent cough seriously affects sleep, I My husband and I had to choose to sleep in separate rooms.”
In desperation, Ms. Li came to Wuhan Puren Hospital for treatment in mid-February. After some examinations, Ms. Li was diagnosed with “cough variant asthma”. This diagnosis made Ms. Li very puzzled. How could a common cough turn into asthma?
“Ms. Li’s experience is not an isolated case. Since the beginning of this spring, we have successively admitted and treated many patients with ‘prolonged cough’.” Cheng Dezhong, director of the second ward of respiratory and critical illness of Wuhan Puren Hospital, said, “Cough variability “Asthma” is a special type of asthma, which is an inflammatory disease of the airways. Such patients do not have common asthma symptoms such as wheezing and shortness of breath, and cough is the only or main manifestation, so it is often easily overlooked by everyone. Usually, if there are repeated chest tightness or coughing, you need to be alert to whether there is an asthma attack.
After anti-inflammatory, anti-asthma, and anti-allergic treatments, Ms. Li’s condition has been relieved. Cheng Dezhong said that in fact, in daily life, there are still many “cough” patients like Ms. Li. It is often treated as a common cold, thereby delaying the condition.
Cheng Dezhong reminded that the common triggering factors of “cough variant asthma” are climate change, inhalation of cold air, respiratory infection, exposure to irritating odors, allergens and psychological factors. Therefore, the most important thing to prevent the attack of “cough variant asthma” is to remove the triggering factors. In 30% to 40% of patients, allergens can be detected. Allergens include dust mites, animal dirt, mold, pollen, milk, etc. , There are also common factors including bacterial virus infection, irritating odors such as oil fume, weather changes, cold wind stimulation, or allergies to certain ingredients in medicine and food. Patients can find out the law of their own disease based on these, and carry out desensitization treatment under the guidance of specialist doctors. If recurrent cough occurs, mainly dry cough at night, or recurrent chest tightness lasts for more than 8 weeks, you should be alert to cough variant asthma and need to seek medical examination in time.