ABSTRACT
The modem era of managing cough began in the late 1970s. In 1977, a systematic manner of evaluating patients with chronic cough was first proposed. It was an anatomic, diagnos tic approach. At its core was the evaluation by history, physical examination, and labora tory tests of the anatomy of the afferent limb of the cough reflex, schematically depicted in Fig. 1. This approach was conceived after a review of animal histological data, case reports of clinical observations in humans, and a few prospective epidemiological studies. From this review, it was reasoned that cough could be caused by a multiplicity of diseases in a variety of anatomic locations and that extrapulmonary as well as pulmonary diseases needed to be routinely considered as potential causes.
