Cough diagnosis: from origins to modern times (review of literature)

Cough is one of the most common reasons why patients visit a doctor. Many factors can cause coughing, but so far precise methods of this condition’s diagnosis are still lacking in clinical practice. Objective. To analyze the literature data on modern approaches to cough diagnosis. Material and methods. Scientific publications from PubMed, eLibrary databases with a search depth of more than 30 years were analyzed. Results. There are many methods of examining patients with cough based on the patient’s subjective sensations. These methods are fundamental in modern diagnostics, but often do not help to establish a precise diagnosis. Recently, the objective methods of cough diagnosis have been developed. The review describes the history of approaches to cough diagnosis, analyzes modern methods of its diagnosis, including the method of spectral tussophonobarography, which is used to study cough in such diseases as bronchial asthma, gastroesophageal reflux disease, COVID-19. Conclusion. Development of new methods for cough investigation, including those based on spectral analysis of cough sound, will improve diagnosis, differential diagnosis and treatment of cough-related diseases.