Chronic cough is a persistent cough lasting ≥8 weeks and is estimated to affect between 2-18% of the global population; however chronic cough is often unrecognized, underdiagnosed and there remain many unmet needs in its treatment. It was a pleasure to speak with Dr. James Wingfield Digby (University of Manchester, Manchester, UK) around his study investigating hypotonic saline as a diagnostic for refractory/unexplained chronic cough.
The abstract ‘Hypotonic Saline Effectively discriminates Refractory/Unexplained Chronic Cough from Healthy Volunteers‘ was presented at ERS 2022, 4–6 September, 2022.
Questions
- What are the diagnostic challenges of refractory/unexplained chronic cough (RCC/UCC)? (0:24)
- What was the rationale for the use of hypotonic saline to distinguish RCC/UCC from healthy volunteers? (2:20)
- What were the aims, design and eligibility criteria of your study? (4:15)
- How well did hypotonic saline differentiate the healthy volunteers from the RCC-UCC group? (5:05)
- What will be the clinical impact of this finding? (6:52)
Disclosures: James Wingfield Digby has nothing to disclose in relation to this video interview.
Support: Interview and filming supported by Touch Medical Media Ltd. Interview conducted by Victoria Jones.
Filmed in coverage of the ERS meeting 2022.
