Cough dynamics in adults receiving tuberculosis treatment
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Cough is a characteristic symptom of tuberculosis, is the main cause of transmission,and is used to assess treatment response. We aimed to identify the best measure ofcough severity and characterize changes during initial tuberculosis therapy.We conducted a prospective cohort of recently diagnosed ambulatory adult patientswith pulmonary tuberculosis in two tertiary hospitals in Lima, Peru. Pre-treatment andfive times during the first two months of treatment, a vibrometer was used to capture 4-hour recordings of involuntary cough. A total of 358 recordings from 69 participantswere analyzed using a computer algorithm.Total time spent coughing (seconds per hour) was a better predictor of microbiologicindicators of disease severity and treatment response than the frequency of coughepisodes or cough power. Patients with prior tuberculosis tended to cough more thanpatients without prior tuberculosis, and patients with tuberculosis and diabetescoughed more than patients without diabetes co-morbidity. Cough characteristics weresimilar regardless of HIV co-infection and for drug-susceptible versus drug-resistanttuberculosis.Tuberculosis treatment response may be meaningfully assessed by objectivelymonitoring the time spent coughing. This measure demonstrated that cough wasincreased in patients with TB recurrence or co-morbid diabetes, but not because ofdrug resistance or HIV co-infection.
Date Issued
2020-06-08
Date Acceptance
2020-03-17
Citation
PLoS One, 2020, 15 (6), pp.1-13
ISSN
1932-6203
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Start Page
1
End Page
13
Journal / Book Title
PLoS One
Volume
15
Issue
6
Copyright Statement
© 2020 Lee et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Sponsor
Wellcome Trust
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Wellcome Trust
Wellcome Trust
Wellcome Trust
Identifier
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0231167
Grant Number
100693/Z/12/Z
MR/K007467/1
097816/Z/11/A
105788/Z/14/Z
201251/Z/16/Z
Subjects
General Science & Technology
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2020-06-08