ABSTRACT
Cough is readily recognized by the human ear and can easily be distin-
guished from other upper airway sounds such as speech, laughing, throat
clearing, and snoring. In addition, individuals can sometimes be recognized
by the characteristics of their cough and specific cough qualities have been attributed to different chest conditions. Medical textbooks describe cough
by a number of descriptors (e.g., dry, moist, productive, brassy, bovine,
barking, rattling, hoarse, wheezy, loose, etc), which can be broadly divided
into those coughs produced with and without the presence of sputum within
the airways. A recent systematic study of cough descriptors using cluster
analysis (1) has confirmed that commonly used terms do indeed divide
cough into those associated with sputum (moist, productive, rattling, and
loose) and those without sputum production (dry, brassy, barking, and hoarse). Moreover, although some practitioners can also recognize a
wheezy quality to cough, there was a very limited ability to recognize
individual chest diseases by their cough characteristics.
