3.1. The etiological composition and cough character
Table 1 showed etiological composition and cough character of
chronic cough. The number of children between 1 years and 3 years was 48
(11.4%), the number of children between 3 years and 6 years was 227
(54.0%), and the number of children between 6 years and 14 years old
was 145 (34.5%).
Etiological composition of chronic cough: PIC is the most common
(34.8%) cause of chronic cough in children of 1-14 years old, followed
by UACS (22.9%), CVA (21.4%), AC (17.9%), TS (2.6%) and GERD
(0.5%). Among these, in the young children (1-3 years old), the
sequence of the common cause of chronic cough was PIC (35.4%), UACS
(25.0%), CVA (16.7%), AC (18.7%), GERC (2.1%) and TS (2.1%). In the
preschool children (3-6 years old), the sequence of the common cause of
nonspecific chronic cough was PIC (37.9%), UACS (21.1 %), AC (19.8%),
CVA (18.9%), TS (2.2%) and GERD (0.0%). In the school-age children
(6-14 years old), the sequence of the common cause of nonspecific
chronic cough was PIC (29.7%), CVA (26.9 %), UACS (34.8%), AC
(14.5%), TS (3.4%) and GERD (0.7%). There was no significant
difference in etiological components among different ages (P
> 0.05).
In respect of cough character, 144 children (34.3%) were dry cough, and
276 children (65.7%) were wet cough. The common causes of wet cough
were PIC (39.9%), UACS (26.1%), CVA (17.8%), AC (14.9%), TS (1.1%)
and GERD (0.4%).The common causes of dry cough were CVA (28.5%), PIC
(25.0%), AC (23.6%), UACS (16.7%), TS (5.6%) and GERD (0.7%).There
was a significant difference in the cause of dry cough and wet cough
(P<0.001) .