The human respiratory system is designed in such a way that when foreign bodies (even microscopic ones) enter it, a spasm occurs and, as a result, a cough. In this way, our body tries to cleanse itself of everything that can harm it. A cough can also occur when the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract becomes inflamed. Air pollution from various industrial emissions and exhaust gases leads to the fact that most city residents complain of coughing and other breathing problems. Additional exposure to dust, bacterial spores, pollen and chemicals further aggravates the situation.
A cough that is accompanied by a fever often indicates the development of an infectious disease, cold or other ailment in the body. In this case, many turn to a doctor to begin treatment. However, cough without fever is not always given enough attention. But such a condition may indicate the presence of serious health problems.
Causes of cough without fever in adults
Smoker's cough . This is one of the most common phenomena. Inhalation of nicotine and hot smoke can lead to irritation of the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract. Moreover, cigarette smoke contains about 300 harmful compounds that cause irritation of the respiratory tract - these substances can cause a dry cough without fever. At the same time, prolonged exposure to the components of tobacco smoke on the respiratory tract can cause the development of an inflammatory reaction of the bronchi, which results in the formation of sputum, and subsequently a wet cough without fever may occur. Allergy. There are thousands of irritants in the air and on everyday things. This includes animal hair, dust, and mold. Often an allergy to one of them is accompanied by a cough without fever.
Incorrect or incomplete treatment. The cause of a cough without fever may be incomplete recovery from an infectious disease or a simple cold. In a similar way, the respiratory tract tries to free itself from the remaining mucus.
Some diseases. A severe cough without fever may also indicate the presence of serious pathologies. These include lung cancer, tuberculosis, emphysema and chronic bronchitis. If you notice symptoms of these diseases, consult your doctor immediately.
Gastroesophageal reflux disease. This term means heartburn. In this case, cough without fever is a secondary symptom and is accompanied by chest pain and wheezing.
Problems with the cardiovascular system. People who suffer from heart failure and high blood pressure, and also take ACE inhibitors, may complain of coughing attacks without fever.
Night cough with other sleep-disordered breathing
Changes in breathing due to central apnea and other disorders can also lead to coughing. The frequency of this symptom increases among patients who have a combination of OSA and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In this case, the symptom develops not only due to pathological mechanisms of sleep apnea, but also due to obstruction and infectious inflammation in the bronchi.
Night cough in bronchial asthma
At first glance, bronchial asthma has little to do with sleep, but episodes of shortness of breath, suffocation and cough can occur with this disease not only during the day, but also at night. Nighttime asthma attacks are often associated with allergies, for example, to materials of animal origin from which pillows and blankets are made: down, wool, feathers.
Smoker's cough
The appearance of a cough with sputum production at night or early in the morning is often observed in people with tobacco addiction. The immediate cause of its development is changes in the respiratory tract caused by smoking, but sleep, in a sense, is a predisposing factor to its occurrence. At night, when a person breathes evenly and measuredly, does not talk and does not show signs of physical activity, his respiratory tract is not cleared of phlegm as effectively as during the day. As a result, it accumulates in the bronchi, and when there is too much of it, or a person changes body position, it irritates sensitive nerve endings, and coughing attacks appear.
The possible causes of night cough are very diverse, and the treatment tactics for various disorders that may be its cause vary greatly. The problem of smoker's cough is eliminated by quitting smoking, bronchial asthma is treated with bronchodilators, exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease may require antibiotics, and apnea syndrome usually requires CPAP therapy. Only a specialist can prescribe appropriate therapy. For this reason, independent attempts to eliminate night cough are unacceptable; patients need to see a therapist, pulmonologist or somnologist.
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Causes of cough without fever in children
Anatomical features. A short-term cough without fever in children in the first year of life is considered normal. Since the formation of the airways continues after birth, coughing can be a natural reaction to the secretion of mucus and the accumulation of food debris. Babies do not know how to swallow saliva, so they cough it up.
Reaction to allergens. As in adults, cough without fever in children can occur due to allergies to dust, wool and other irritants. In addition, even excessively dry indoor air contributes to its development.
Bronchial asthma. This disease often develops in childhood. The most common cause of an attack of bronchial asthma is the entry of any allergen into the child’s body. A cough without fever can be a clear sign of the development of bronchial asthma, so you should consult a doctor for a correct diagnosis.
Chronic diseases. Tracheitis, bronchitis, pharyngitis and other ailments often manifest as a cough without fever. Attacks can also occur with biliary dyskinesia or reflux disease.
Infections. ARVI, adenoids, tonsillitis and sinusitis are not always accompanied by an increase in temperature. With such diseases, cough occurs due to mucus getting from the nose into the throat, and the body is simply trying to get rid of it. A cough without fever can also be a consequence of infection with worms.
Correct examination for chronic cough
A cough lasting more than eight weeks is the reason for mandatory examination. In many of the above-mentioned diseases, cough may be the only sign of illness for some time. The examination should begin with a consultation with a therapist, who, if the most severe diseases (cancer, tuberculosis) have been excluded, will refer you to a specialized specialist - an otolaryngologist, gastroenterologist, or pulmonologist.
Examination for chronic cough includes instrumental and laboratory diagnostics depending on complaints and symptoms.
Laboratory diagnosis of the causes of prolonged cough:
- A CBC with a leukocyte formula will help identify acute and chronic bacterial, viral and allergic processes in the body.
- To diagnose helminthiasis, in which a protracted cough symptom complex often occurs: PARASEP stool test and blood test for antibodies to common parasites.
- To identify other causes of allergic cough: general immunoglobulin E and specific immunoglobulins to suspected significant allergens (respiratory or food).
- If helminthiasis and allergosis are excluded, a laboratory examination should be continued to look for the infectious nature of the cough: when sputum is discharged, it should be examined for culture to identify bacterial and fungal flora and DNA detection of intracellular microorganisms using the PCR method (mycoplasma, chlamyphylla, whooping cough, parapertussis).
- To detect tuberculosis, immunological tests are used, which are “in vitro” tests, i.e. is performed outside the body (in vitro), and therefore, unlike skin tests (Mantoux, Diaskin test), it does not require the introduction of provoking substances into the body. The test is based on assessing the T-cell immune response, namely, determining the release of interferon gamma by sensitized T-lymphocytes in peripheral blood.
With the results of the studies, it is necessary to contact a pulmonologist to make a diagnosis and choose further tactics of examination and therapy.
And in the LabQuest laboratory there is a special complex - Prolonged cough in a child, which includes most of the necessary tests.
The material was prepared by specialists from the LabQuest medical laboratory, which provides the entire range of laboratory diagnostics to children and adults.
Treatment of cough without fever
The list of causes of cough without fever can be continued endlessly, because each individual case is always individual. To make an accurate diagnosis, you should consult a doctor. In this case, you can start treatment for cough without fever in time and avoid complications. It should be noted that complex therapy is often prescribed, because this ailment is usually a consequence of a more serious disease. Drugs that are used to treat cough without fever can be grouped into the following groups:
- antitussives,
- expectorants,
- antihistamines.
In addition, you can use inhalations with medicinal substances and solutions. When coughing without fever, they help moisturize the mucous membrane, reduce swelling of the airways and get rid of phlegm. Among the general recommendations, humidification of the room where the patient is located, walks in the fresh air, and plenty of warm drinks are often noted.
What you need to know about cough?
Any cough is not a pathology in itself, it is a consequence of certain disorders in the body. By nature, it is conceived as a kind of protective mechanism. When irritants or foreign bodies (including microscopic ones) enter the respiratory system, receptors begin to react, muscles contract, and we cough. In this way, the body tries to cleanse itself, and if it manages to do this on its own, there is no need for additional treatment.
With a rare, isolated cough, there is really no need to worry. Perhaps there is a lot of dust accumulated in the room or you have become hypothermic outside. But when it lasts more than seven days, even if there is no fever or other signs of illness, it is always a sign of illness. In this case, you should not limit yourself to traditional methods of getting rid of cough and delay going to the doctor. By eliminating a symptom, you do not solve the problem itself, and this is what is most important.
During pregnancy
If there is no fever during pregnancy, a cough may be caused by hormonal changes. When the entire body is rebuilt, it becomes a temporary phenomenon and, as a rule, does not cause as much harm as other diseases. However, even a hormonal cough should not be neglected. The reasons for it, of course, cannot be eliminated, but they need to be mitigated. Constant contraction of the abdominal muscles when coughing leads to contraction of the ligaments. And the most unfavorable consequences of this are the appearance of bleeding and premature birth.
It is better to refuse drug treatment for cough during pregnancy and give preference to traditional medicine. However, you should not drink anything on your own, even seemingly harmless herbal teas. They are allowed to be taken only after consultation with your doctor, because all substances that enter the body of a pregnant woman affect the health and proper development of the fetus.
3. Symptoms and diagnosis
There are acute, subacute and chronic non-productive cough. The main criterion is the persistence of symptoms: if the cough is reduced within 3 weeks, it is considered acute; if it persists for more than 8 weeks, it is said to be chronic. In many cases, a dry cough is accompanied by a number of additional symptoms: chest pain, headache, weakness, shortness of breath, weight loss, etc.
Today, the exact cause or causes of a nonproductive cough can be established, according to various estimates, in 90-100% of cases, although sometimes this requires an in-depth examination and takes some time. The first diagnostically significant sign for a specialist is the nature of the cough; There are such varieties as:
- barking (usually with lesions of the trachea or larynx);
- small and frequent (pleural pathology);
- bitonal (tumor processes);
- night "heart";
- whistling asthmatic, etc.
Anamnesis is studied, examination, auscultation, and percussion examination of the chest are performed. In case of diagnostic doubts or ambiguities, laboratory tests of blood, urine, sputum (if the required amount can be collected with a dry cough), radiographic and/or tomographic studies, bronchoscopy, diagnostic bronchoalveolar lavage (wash), biopsy and other procedures as indicated are prescribed. As necessary, specialized specialists are involved (oncologist, infectious disease specialist, neurologist, etc.).
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What could a cough be like?
Its appearance plays an important role in diagnosing cough and combating it. You can also cough in different ways, which reduces the list of possible causes in a particular case and determines the features of further treatment of the disease.
In this regard, we may encounter a cough:
- dry (sometimes with wheezing) and wet (accompanied by sputum production). Dry is more characteristic of allergic manifestations, reactions to dust, smoke, dry air, it accompanies heart disease, and wet - colds, bronchitis, tuberculosis and similar diseases;
- paroxysmal (a person suffocates and feels severe discomfort in the throat). This cough is most often encountered with asthma, smoking, and chronic diseases of the respiratory system. It often changes from dry to wet;
- long-term, which does not go away within a month or longer - asthma, whooping cough, chronic bronchitis, smoking, enlarged thyroid gland;
- deep, which is a sign of allergies and respiratory diseases, tumors;
- rare and short-term, which most often shows the impact of provoking factors at a given moment in time - high/low humidity, fungus, the presence of an allergen, toxins in the air;
- purulent, indicating a severe bacterial infection;
- with a sore throat, when coughing itself also causes pain.
This means that the pain receptors of the mucous membrane are irritated (sore throat, pharyngitis, laryngitis) or the mucous membrane itself is damaged.
Pay attention to what kind of cough you have, try to determine what it looks like. The doctor will definitely ask about this during the appointment, especially if during the entire time you were in his office you never coughed. This classification, together with other symptoms and diagnostics, allows an accurate diagnosis to be made.
