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Specific treatment approach to manage cough shows promise
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Taking an algorithmic approach to managing children with cough may yield good results and deserves further study, according to data published online.
Anne Bernadette Chang, PhD, of Royal Children’s Hospital in Australia, and colleagues reported data on 272 children (mean age, 4.5 years) from five Australian centers who were randomly assigned to an “early review and use of cough algorithm” or a “usual care until review and use of cough algorithm,” which they dubbed the “delayed arm.”
Anne Bernadette Chang
The algorithm stratified children based on specific parameters that would suggest the underlying cause, such as feeding difficulties or wheeze, and then stratified those children further based on features of the cough. Based on those results, the algorithm then offers specific courses of action, such as watchful waiting or antibiotic treatment.
Those children in the delayed arm were more likely to be coughing at week 6 and had poorer quality of life when compared with the early-arm group.
“Once the cough algorithm was applied, the duration of cough was similar in each group,” Chang told Infectious Diseases in Children.
Disclosure:Chang reports having received institutional funding from GlaxoSmithKline for an investigator-led clinical study.
Anne Bernadette Chang, PhD, FRACP, can be reached at the Old Children’s Respiratory Centre, Royal Children’s Hospital, Herston, Brisbane, Queensland 4029, Australia.
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