Determinants of cough related quality of life in interstitial lung diseases

<bold>Introduction:</bold> Interstitial lung diseases (ILD) include a wide range of diseases impacting on lung parenchyma because of inflammation, fibrosis and architectural distortion. Chronic cough and dyspnea are common symptoms to affect the quality of life (QoL) in ILD patients. <bold>Aims and objectives:</bold> The mechanisms of cough in ILD patients are obscure. The aim of this study was to prospectively investigate histological, radiological and physiological determinants of cough-related QoL in ILD patients who underwent transbronchial lung cryobiopsy (TBLC). <bold>Methods:</bold> All patients (n=110) filled in Leicester Cough Questionnaire (LCQ) and underwent lung function tests (FVC, FEV1, DLCO), high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) and blood samples before TBLC. Two experienced radiologists assessed the extents of following HRCT patterns: Ground glass opacities (GGO), honeycombing, reticulation, traction bronchiectasis and emphysema. Histology of TBLC samples were re-analyzed by two experienced pulmonary pathologists and the presence of fibroblast foci, patchy fibrosis, giant cells, granulomas and honeycombing were recorded. <bold>Results:</bold> In the multivariate analyses, body mass index (BMI) and granulomas showed independent associations with the LCQ total score (Table). Table LCQ multivariate analysis <table-wrap><object-id>erj;64/suppl_68/PA686/TB1</object-id><object-id>T1</object-id><object-id>TB1</object-id><table><colgroup><col></col><col></col><col></col><col></col></colgroup><tbody><tr><td>Characteristics</td><td>B-value</td><td>95. 0 % confident interval for B</td><td>p-value</td></tr><tr><td>BMI</td><td>-0.29</td><td>-0.44 - -0.13</td><td>0.000</td></tr><tr><td>Granulomas</td><td>-4.35</td><td>-6.92 - -1.78</td><td>0.001</td></tr></tbody></table></table-wrap> <bold>Conclusion:</bold> Impairment of the cough related QoL, as expressed in low LCQ total score, was mainly associated with the presence of granulomas in TBLC and high BMI in ILD patients.