Diagnosis and follow-up of patients with chronic cough in childhood

Cough is one of the most common causes of hospital admissions in childhood all over the world. This may be due to a simple underlying cause, and may be a sign of life-threatening diseases that can lead to irreversible consequences if not diagnosed early. It causes psychological damage for families and patients and leads to increased workload for health workers. Hospital applications due to cough have a significant share in the health expenditures of states. In our study, the clinic, diagnostic stages, diagnoses and follow-up periods of the patients who applied to our Pediatric Pulmonary Diseases Outpatient Clinic due to chronic cough between 1 October 2015 and 30 September 2017 were examined. A total of 62 patients were studied. The mean age of the patients was 75.65 ± 51.61 months. 55.3% of the cases were male and 44.7% were female. 75.8% of the patients had cough duration longer than 3 months. Among the applicants, 22.5% had consanguineous marriages and 20.9% had domestic tobacco exposure. The most frequent admission was in November and December, and the least was in July and August. The most frequent diagnoses were asthma and reactive airway disease, primary ciliary dyskinesia, cystic fibrosis and postinfectious cough. 79% of cases were consulted to other departments within the hospital. Patients with asthma were diagnosed more frequently between the ages of 2-6 and primary ciliary dyskinesia among the patients aged 6-12 years. 64.2% of wheezing children were diagnosed with asthma. 41% of patients with wet cough were diagnosed with primary ciliary dyskinesia. The mean age of diagnosis of CF patients diagnosed without newborn screening program is 63 months. No patient died in follow-up. Key words: Pediatrics, chronic cough, asthma, primary ciliary dyskinesia, cystic fibrosis