Cough

Coughing is a common and distressing symptom for people with interstitial lung disease (ILD), affecting daily activities, work, and social life. This research explores a non-drug cough control therapy combined with pulmonary rehabilitation to see if it is practical and helps reduce chronic cough lasting more than eight weeks in ILD patients. The study aims to assess how well patients accept this therapy and whether it improves quality of life, cough symptoms, and fatigue compared to standard pulmonary rehabilitation alone. Participants will join a pulmonary rehabilitation program involving aerobic and strengthening exercises, disease-specific education, and self-management as usual care. Two weeks before finishing this program, they will receive four virtual sessions of 45 to 60 minutes each, focusing on cough control education and techniques. These sessions include assessing cough, learning suppression methods, breathing retraining, and reinforcing strategies to manage cough in daily life. During the study, researchers will track enrollment and attendance to measure feasibility, along with various clinical outcomes like cough severity questionnaires, fatigue scales, breathlessness ratings, and patient satisfaction interviews. The intervention is delivered online via Zoom, allowing remote participation. The total study duration averages one year, with ongoing assessments to understand the therapy's impact and participants' experiences.

Researchers are evaluating the effects of acupressure on cough and related symptoms such as shortness of breath and fatigue in lung cancer survivors. This randomized controlled trial aims to see if acupressure can reduce these symptoms, improve symptom burden, and enhance health-related quality of life and functional ability in patients with lung cancer. The study addresses the significant impact that cough and its related symptoms have on lung cancer survivors' quality of life and overall survival. Participants are randomly assigned to one of two groups: one group receives an 8-week acupressure intervention, while the other receives an educational booklet about lung cancer, cough causes, and management. The acupressure group attends two hospital training sessions in the first week to learn the technique, then performs acupressure daily on 15 specific points twice a day and during coughing episodes as needed. The education group receives the booklet after baseline assessment and will be offered acupressure later after the study ends. Participants keep diaries of their acupressure practice and symptoms and are assessed four times: before starting (baseline), after one week, after eight weeks, and eight weeks after the intervention ends. Researchers measure cough, quality of life related to cough, symptom clusters, fatigue, shortness of breath, symptom burden, functional capacity, and overall health-related quality of life. Follow-up continues for 16 weeks to monitor lasting effects and safety throughout the study period.

Researchers are investigating cough patterns in adults with chronic cough lasting at least 8 weeks. They have developed a new one-page questionnaire that identifies four distinct cough patterns and allows patients to describe other patterns they experience. The questionnaire also measures cough frequency, intensity, and disruption to daily life on a 1-10 scale to calculate an overall severity score. The study aims to understand these cough patterns and how they relate to patient experience. This observational study has two parts. In Part 1, about 30 patients will complete the questionnaire once, providing feedback on its clarity and whether the identified cough patterns cover their experience. In Part 2, another group of 30 patients will complete the questionnaire twice, 2 to 4 weeks apart, to assess how consistent the questionnaire responses are over time. Informed consent and eligibility screening can be done in person or by telephone. Participants will complete the questionnaire describing their cough pattern and rate the frequency, intensity, and life disruption caused by their cough. Researchers will analyze the patterns, severity scores, and the reproducibility of the questionnaire. The study includes eligibility checks, data collection through questionnaires, and monitoring over several weeks. The total involvement depends on the study part but includes initial and follow-up questionnaire completion.

Researchers are studying how physical activity in areas with high air pollution affects children's lung health compared to rest in the same conditions. The study involves children aged 7 to 11 from primary schools in areas with different pollution levels, aiming to understand the impact of short-term air pollution on respiratory inflammation. This is a randomized, interventional study conducted by Queen Mary University of London. The study will include 330 children from 10 schools categorized by pollution levels. Children will participate in two types of outdoor sessions: a 90-minute physical education (PE) lesson and a 90-minute sedentary science lesson. During these sessions, children will wear activity monitors to track movement, while air pollution levels are measured in the playground. Lung health and immune responses will be assessed before, immediately after, and 24 hours post-exposure through breathing tests and nasal samples. Participants will be assessed at school on two separate days, including measurements of height, weight, and lung function using oscillometry. Nasal samples will be collected to analyze immune responses to pollution. The study measures airway resistance and small airway resistance to evaluate lung function changes. Overall participation will take about four hours, and the research seeks to compare respiratory effects between children in higher and lower pollution environments.

Pain after thoracotomy is often severe due to the surgical incision affecting ribs, muscles, and nerves. This trial evaluates the effects of combined acupressure on post-thoracotomy pain and lung volume. The study explores how acupressure, a non-drug method that stimulates specific body points to balance energy flow and regulate pain, may help reduce opioid use and improve recovery after thoracic surgery. Participants are randomly assigned to either an experimental group receiving acupressure at specific points on the body at 2, 6, and 24 hours after surgery or a control group receiving standard care without acupressure. Each acupressure point is stimulated for one minute. Both groups continue routine clinical treatment and care during the study. Participants will have their pain levels measured at rest, during breathing, coughing, and movement before surgery and at 2, 6, and 24 hours post-surgery using a visual analogue scale. Lung volume will be recorded before surgery and 24 hours after using a triflow device. Additional assessments include breathing and coughing exercises and vital signs such as blood pressure, respiratory rate, and oxygen saturation. The study aims to improve pain management and lung function after thoracotomy while minimizing opioid-related side effects.

Researchers are investigating the possible link between hemorrhoids and coughing by studying patients who visit a general surgery outpatient clinic with symptoms such as bleeding, pain, itching, fecal leakage, prolapse, and mucus discharge. The study aims to determine if coughing is a contributing factor to hemorrhoids by assessing cough symptoms, including their presence, duration, and frequency, in patients diagnosed with hemorrhoidal disease. This prospective, observational study will gather detailed information on cough severity, comorbid chest diseases, and smoking history among these patients. Patients diagnosed with hemorrhoidal disease will be examined and graded based on mucosal prolapse according to the Goligher classification. Evaluations will include physical exams, height and weight measurements, and questionnaires such as the Leicester Cough Questionnaire and the Cough Visual Analog Scale. Cough duration will be categorized as acute or chronic, and additional data will be collected on chest diseases and smoking status. Patients with cough will be referred for further chest disease evaluation. Participants will provide demographic and clinical information, including cough and hemorrhoid symptoms, comorbidities, and lifestyle factors. The study will measure the relationship between hemorrhoid severity and cough characteristics, along with chest disease presence and smoking history. Data will be collected between March and June 2025, and the primary outcome will focus on cough severity as measured by the Leicester Cough Questionnaire.

Researchers are evaluating a smartphone-based Cough Management (CM) program designed to reduce cough frequency and burden in adults aged 21 to 80 years who have refractory or unexplained chronic cough. The study aims to determine if four weeks of using the CM feature in the CoughPro app can lower the objective cough rate compared to each participant's one-week baseline. It also investigates whether the program decreases cough intensity and improves quality of life based on patient-reported scores using the Leicester Cough Questionnaire and PGI-S. Participants will use the CoughPro wellness app, which includes behavioral lessons based on cough suppression therapy to help recognize and control the urge to cough. They will wear a Hyfe CoughMonitor smartwatch continuously for six weeks: one week for baseline cough monitoring, four weeks of the intervention using the CM program, and one week of follow-up. The smartwatch passively monitors cough frequency without recording audio. The program is delivered entirely through participants' devices. During the study, participants will complete online questionnaires at baseline and after four weeks of intervention. They will also take part in a brief exit interview before returning the smartwatch and receiving compensation. Researchers will measure changes in cough rate, cough intensity, and patient-reported cough burden. The total participation time is six weeks, including baseline, intervention, and follow-up periods.

Researchers are working to develop and validate a new patient-focused tool called the Cough Control Questionnaire (CCQ) to assess the control of chronic cough, a condition lasting more than 8 weeks that affects 5-12% of people worldwide and impacts health status and quality of life. Unlike asthma, there are currently no validated tools specifically designed to measure cough control. This study aims to create and test a questionnaire that may help evaluate treatments for chronic cough in clinical and research settings. The study consists of three phases. First, a literature review will examine existing tools for assessing respiratory disease control. Next, patient focus groups and expert panel reviews will develop the CCQ through qualitative research and cognitive interviews to ensure clarity and relevance. Finally, patients with chronic cough will complete the CCQ along with assessments of cough severity, quality of life, and health status. Some participants will also undergo objective cough frequency monitoring and cough reflex testing to validate the questionnaire. Participants will be adults aged 18 to 100 years with chronic cough, including refractory and unexplained types. They will take part in focus groups or validation studies by completing questionnaires and interviews. The study measures outcomes such as cough control via the CCQ, cough severity, quality of life, cough frequency, and reflex testing over a two-week period. This observational study is sponsored by King's College Hospital NHS Trust and runs until September 2031.

This research aims to compare the effectiveness of dexmedetomidine, magnesium sulfate, and lidocaine in reducing cough during the wake-up phase after general anesthesia. The study is a prospective, randomized, controlled, double-blinded trial focused on measuring both the number and severity of coughs during this critical period. Participants will be randomly assigned to receive one of four treatments 10 minutes before the end of surgery: dexmedetomidine at 0.5 bcg/kg in saline, magnesium sulfate at 30 mg/kg IV in saline, lidocaine at 1.5 mg/kg in saline, or a saline placebo. Each treatment is given in a 10 ml saline solution. This phase 3 study carefully compares these options to assess their impact on cough suppression during anesthetic emergence. During the study, researchers will monitor cough frequency and severity at 0, 10, 20, 30, and 40 minutes after removal of the breathing tube. Additional measurements include intraoperative heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen levels every 15 minutes, and sedation scores after extubation at set intervals. The study involves adults aged 21 to 60 undergoing surgery under general anesthesia, with careful monitoring to evaluate safety and treatment effects until the end of the observation period.

Researchers are investigating whether adding a coaching module with playful visual stimulation to physiotherapist guidance can improve how children learn to use a mechanical insufflation-exsufflation (MI-E) device. This study focuses on children aged 6 to 12, first including healthy children without lung or chronic diseases, then including children with neuromuscular diseases. MI-E is a technique recommended for clearing airways, especially useful in respiratory infections and postoperative care, but its learning process can be inconsistent without proper support. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups: one receiving guidance from a physiotherapist plus the coaching module, and the other receiving guidance from a physiotherapist alone. Both groups will learn to use the MI-E device, and their learning times, cough flow rates, and synchronization with the device will be compared. The coaching module aims to make learning more effective and enjoyable. During the study, children will undergo learning sessions lasting up to 15 minutes, with evaluations of effectiveness at the session's end and again 24 hours later. Researchers will measure peak cough flow, ease of use, comfort using visual scales, number of cough sets, and the time to achieve quality coughs. The study will monitor safety by excluding children with certain conditions like pneumothorax or hemoptysis. The total study duration includes these assessments to understand the learning process better.