Post viral cough
Post-viral Cough is a lingering cough experienced following a viral respiratory tract infection usually a common cold or flu and lasting more than eight weeks. Post-viral cough is a clinically recognized condition represented within the European medical literature but is not mentioned in studies from America. Patients usually experience repeated episodes of post-viral cough. The heightened sensitivity in the respiratory tract is demonstrated by inhalation cough challenge.[1]
Cause
One possible cause for post-viral cough is that the receptors that are responsible for stimulating the cough during the respiratory tract infection continue to do so after the virus has disappeared, up-regulated by respiratory tract infection.
Differential Diagnosis of Post viral cough
| Cardiovascular | No underlying causes |
| Chemical / poisoning | No underlying causes |
| Dermatologic | No underlying causes |
| Drug Side Effect | No underlying causes |
| Ear Nose Throat | No underlying causes |
| Endocrine | No underlying causes |
| Environmental | No underlying causes |
| Gastroenterologic | No underlying causes |
| Genetic | No underlying causes |
| Hematologic | No underlying causes |
| Iatrogenic | No underlying causes |
| Infectious Disease | No underlying causes |
| Musculoskeletal / Ortho | No underlying causes |
| Neurologic | No underlying causes |
| Nutritional / Metabolic | No underlying causes |
| Oncologic | No underlying causes |
| Opthalmologic | No underlying causes |
| Overdose / Toxicity | No underlying causes |
| Psychiatric | No underlying causes |
| Pulmonary | No underlying causes |
| Renal / Electrolyte | No underlying causes |
| Rheum / Immune / Allergy | No underlying causes |
| Trauma | No underlying causes |
| Miscellaneous | No underlying causes |
Treatment
Post viral cough can be resistant to treatment. Inhaled steroids may work in some patients. Post-viral cough is usually treated the same way as a viral cough.