The First American Cough Conference. New York City, June 8-9, 2007.

摘要

Cough is the most common complaint for which patients in the United States seek medical attention [1]. Yet historically the dearth of research efforts and clinical studies focused on the evaluation and treatment of cough has been inconsistent with its significance as a clinical problem worldwide. Thankfully, recent years have witnessed an emergence of interest in cough within the scientific, clinical, and pharmaceutical industry communities. A Medline literature review demonstrates that publications containing the keyword "cough" have approximately doubled in each of the past two decades relative to the prior decade [2]. The perceived importance of cough worldwide is further evidenced by the fact that in the past few years four major pulmonary societies have published guidelines on the diagnosis and management of cough: the European Respiratory Society [3], the American College of Chest Physicians [4], the British Thoracic Society [5], and the Japanese Respiratory Society [6]. In 2007, a European Respiratory Society Task Force published the first-ever guidelines on the assessment of cough, with the intention of promoting and enhancing the quality of basic and clinical cough-related research [2].