ABSTRACT
Several early case series drew attention to the fact that cough can be the
principal or only presenting complaint in asthma. Glauser (1) first used the term ‘‘variant asthma’’ in 1972 in a description of five patients with
an essentially nonproductive paroxysmal nocturnal cough that responded
rapidly to short-term treatment with systemic corticosteroids. Spirometry
was performed in three of the five cases and was consistent with mild air-
flow obstruction. In 1975, McFadden (2) described seven patients with a
past history of intermittent wheezing who, at the time of study, complained
only of intractable paroxysms of nonproductive cough. Plethysmography
demonstrated a moderately severe obstructive pattern with abnormalities of airway resistance, specific conductance, maximum midexpiratory flow,
and residual volume. There were marked improvements in all these aspects
of pulmonary mechanics in response to bronchodilator treatment.
