Cough, Should I Worry?

What is cough?

Cough is a protective reflex it trigger expulsion of air from your lungs to clear the airway of irritants and it’s not consider as a disease.

Types of Cough

• Acute Cough
• Subacute Cough
• Chronic Cough

When should I worry?

• Cough more than 3 weeks
• Cough getting worse
• New symptoms appear
• Coughing out blood/blood stained phlegm
• Weight loss
• More breathless
• Swollen lymph glands

Tests to find out what is/are the cause(s) of cough

• Blood test
• Phlegm for analysis
• Spirometry
• Radio imaging: X-ray, CT scan
• more invasive procedures: Bronchoscopy, imaged-guided biopsy

Diseases associated with cough

• Pneumonia
• Tuberculosis
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
• Lung fibrosis
• Lung cancer

This article was contributed by Dr. Khor Inn Shih, Sessional Consultant Chest Physician at Pantai Hospital Ipoh. To know more about where and when to see Dr Khor Inn Shih at his clinic, click here.