I have heard of cough variant asthma, what is that?
Dr. Titi – It is what you alluded to before, the patient who only coughs, but who doesn’t develop shortness of breath or wheezing with their cough. It is fairly frequent as we discussed and it is very common in children. Many years ago it was not readily diagnosed . Q – So, what do you do? Pick the worst one first and try to curtail that one? Dr. Titi – Sometimes it may be easy to pick out the most important factor, sometimes it may require further testing perhaps to see if allergies are involved. We may do breathing tests. Usually on the first visit we will do a breathing test and an allergy test. We also collect a detailed history. We often treat one entity at a time but there are some patients who have symptoms to suggest multiple causes and we may treat for two or three things at once. Q – What other techniques, in addition to a chest x-ray, may be needed to arrive at a cough variant asthma diagnosis? Dr. Titi – Spirometry is helpful. Spirometry looks at the airways in a dynamic fa
