Dry cough

Dry cough is a type of cough. In clinical practice, there is also a productive wet cough that is characterized by the separation of sputum.

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What diseases cause a dry cough?

For some diseases, only a dry cough is typical , for others, especially inflammatory diseases of the respiratory system, a productive, usually non-productive. In a number of cases (for example, with acute laryngitis) after the wet cough phase, the phase of nonproductive cough is repeatedly noted, which arises from the decrease in the sensitivity threshold of cough receptors. In the latter case, when dry cough predominates, the pathogenetically justified the appointment of non-expectorants, and antitussive agents.

Dry cough, paroxysmal, debilitating and not bringing relief - is typical for:

• early stages of acute bronchitis,
• pneumonia (especially viral),
• infarction of the lung,
• the initial period of an attack of bronchial asthma,
• pleurisy;
• embolism of the pulmonary artery.

Dry cough with acute bronchitis is often preceded by a feeling of restraint in the chest, difficulty breathing. Also, such a dry cough occurs in response to the inhalation of substances irritating the mucous membrane or entering the lumen of the respiratory tract of a foreign body.

• Dry cough - nasty, long, painful - usually observed when:
  • endobronchial growth of tumors;
  • compression of a large bronchus or trachea from the outside (eg, enlarged lymph nodes of the mediastinum);
  • pulmonary fibrosis;
  • congestive heart failure.
• At the extreme degree of inspiration between the series of coughing tremors can resemble stridor - whistling noise with shortness of breath due to a sharp narrowing of the larynx, trachea or bronchus lumen.
• Against the background of suffocation is typical for cardiac asthma (interstitial pulmonary edema) and is characterized by the sudden occurrence of an unproductive cough: with the progression of edema to the alveolar stage, dry cough becomes productive - foamy sputum of pink color begins to appear.
• If a fit of coughing is delayed, you can observe swelling of the veins of the neck, the appearance of cyanosis of the face and neck (congestion of venous blood due to increased intrathoracic pressure and difficulty in outflow).
• Pertussis has a paroxysmal convulsive dry cough.

Sometimes a dry cough is accompanied by painful sensations that become pronounced when the pleura is involved, especially with a deep breath, usually ending a coughing fit.

What can complicate dry cough?

Prolonged paroxysmal dry cough can be complicated by pneumomediastinum (air penetration into the mediastinum with the subsequent development of subcutaneous emphysema) and pneumothorax (penetration of air into the pleural cavity due to an abscess of the visceral or parietal pleura leaf). In this case, dry cough is fraught with the formation of valvular pneumothorax, when at the next inspiration a part of the air enters the pleural cavity, strengthening the compression atelectasis of the lung.