Etiology and Clinical Patterns of Chronic Cough in the Chest Clinic of a Tertiary Hospital in Nigeria

Purpose The burdens of chronic cough are mostly reported from Western and Asian countries. We aimed to determine the etiology and clinical patterns of chronic cough (CC) in the chest clinic of a tertiary hospital in Nigeria. Patients and methods This survey was a cross-sectional study of 218 patients. Chronic cough was defined as cough >8 weeks duration. The evaluation and diagnosis of patients was based on a diagnostic protocol developed from the international respiratory societies cough guidelines and a previous study. Results The median age of patients was 50 years (interquartile range 30-68). One etiology was identified in 96.3% of cases; dual etiologies in 2.3%, and 1.4% had an unexplained cough. The most frequent causes of cough were COPD (33.5%), PTB (27.1%), and asthma (21.1%) which included 3 cases of cough variants of asthma (CVA). Other causes were post-tuberculosis lung disease (bronchiectasis and fibrosis) in 6.9%, lung cancer in 4.7%, and interstitial lung disease (ILD) in 3.2%. Gastroesophageal-related cough (GERC) accounted for Conclusion The etiology and clinical patterns of chronic cough in this study are different from the western countries. When evaluating and managing chronic cough, clinicians in sub-Saharan Africa and TB endemic countries should consider these geographical variations in etiologies and clinical presentation.