Chronic cough in chilhood: etiologies of 100 cases.

In order to understand the epidemiological aspects of chronic cough, we ana lysed 100 patients' files referred for chronic cough in five pediatic-pulmo nology consultations. The patients had a chronic cough for more than 3 week s. The distribution of causes was : asthma, 56%; upper airway disorders, 16 %; psychogenic, 4%; whooping cough, 4%; Mycoplasma pneumoniae pulmonary inf ection, 3%; Chlamydia pneumoniae pulmonary infection, 1%; bronchiectasis, 1 %. In 15% of cases two or more causes were associated; In most cases, the c linical characteristics of the cough are evident enough to establish a diag nosis with few secondary explorations. The prognosis is on the whole favour able. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.