Pathophysiological aspects of cough reflex: a literature review

Abstract

Cough is a reflex of airway defense under physiological conditions. However, it composes the clinical condition of several pulmonary, cardiac and gastrointestinal deseases. The persistence of the symptom affects the welfare of the patient and affects 3 to 40% of the general population. Although it has an important prevalence, the pathophysiology of the symptom is still not clear. In this sense, new symptom findings are published annually. Thus, the objective of the study is to perform a review of the pathophysiology of cough. This review used forty recent publications in the following databases: Scholar Google, Scielo, Pubmed Central® (PMC), National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and Medline. The pathophysiology of cough is closely linked to the chemical stimulation of C-fibers and to activation by mechanical stimuli of the rapid adaptation receptors (RARs) and the slow adaptating stretch receptors (SARs). The knowledge of these pathophysiological mechanisms is important for the clinical management of patients with this symptom and contributes to the understanding of the mechanism of action of antitussives that act on these receptors.