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HULL CHRONIC COUGH FOCUS GROUP
Issue 3
1
P
Hull Chronic
Cough Group
Newsletter
3rd edition
ISSUE
04/03/2014
IN THIS ISSUE
Cough Focus Group Meeting
By Caroline Wright
Can you believe since our last meeting we
have had Christmas and its festivities and are
well in to the New Year with spring on our
doorstep? I hope you all enjoyed our last
meeting and if you were unable to attend I
hope that you find this news letter of some
interest.
Something which is becoming clear from our
meetings is that we need the group members
to take a more pro-active role in how they
would like the group to run. We are here to
fully support the group and can help
organising speakers and update the group on
new research and maybe topics that you are
interested in but perhaps not closely related
to cough. It might be an idea to vote for a
chairperson, a social secretary or just have
someone to lead the group.
Financial Support
At present we are in the process of trying to
obtain funding for the cough focus group.
We have approached a couple of drug
companies and I am happy to say they didn’t
dismiss the idea. They did however want a
detailed report of how much support
financially we required and for what purpose.
So it’s time to get your thinking caps on and
decide how you would like to move the group
forward.
NEW Study to assess diagnosis and
therapy for cough
Utilisiing the Nitric oxide test in determining chronic
cough diagnosis and therapy. See details on pg 3.
Consider how the funding could be utilized
i.e. guest speakers, travelling to events or
maybe promotional material to inform others
about the effects of chronic cough.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Promotion = recognition
Recognition = Research
Thalidomide- results so far
We need to make our voices heard
Turn to pg 4 to look at the results from 3 patients
having received 1 month treatment with
Thalidomide.
HULL CHRONIC COUGH GROUP NEWSLETTER 3RD EDITION
Issue| 3
Once again we offered you an
insight into the benefits of
relaxation we hope you want to
continue and expand on these
sessions –
Jackie Mower RGN, DIP C HYP
Meetings will be held on the
following dates below:-
March 11th 2014 Tuesday
1pm-3pm
June 10th 2014 Tuesday
1pm-3 pm
September 9th 2014
Tuesday 1pm-3pm
LOCATE OUR NEW
FACEBOOK PAGE
SEARCH THE INTERNET FOR
HULL PERSISTENT COUGH
FOCUS GROUP AND YOU
SHOULD FIND THE FACE BOOK
PAGE SHORTCUT
2
HULL CHRONIC COUGH GROUP NEWSLETTER 3RD EDITION
Issue| 3
3
To look at the effectiveness of this
therapy we will use a positive control in
the form of oral prednisolone.
HEADING 4
Prednisolone will eliminate any
inflammation in the airway.
The effectiveness of the therapies
administered will be measured using
subjective scoring from the patients and
measuring cough objectively with the
citric acid cough challenge and using
24 hour cough monitoring before and
during treatment.
Hull and east Yorkshire Pulmonary
Fibrosis Support Group
We have a support group which is run once every
three months for those who suffer from Pulmonary
Fibrosis. This is lead by Mark Major our Specialist
Nurse and Dr S Hart. Dr S Hart, Consultant
Physician has a special interest in pulmonary
fibrosis and presents at the meetings. Guest
speakers are also invited such as from Department
of Works and Pensions with regards to benefits
that you may be able to claim etc, Dove House
Hospice - treatments on offer etc. Our next
meeting is June 2014 (no specific date as yet) but if
you are interested then please forwards your
contact details to [email protected] or
[email protected]
.
The Allam Lecture
The Hull York Medical School will be holding the
inaugural ‘Allam Lecture’ this will be taking place on
Friday 11th of April 2014 at 5pm. There will be an
opportunity to browse Poster presentations of some of
the work the University is carrying out in Cardiology,
respiratory and cough. A leaflet has been included with
this newsletter.
FAST FACTS
Two thirds of patients
attending cough clinics
are Females.
Sucking on a mentholated
sweet could help your
cough. Our research showed
menthol can significantly
reduce cough sensitivity.
Utilisation of the Nitric oxide
measurement in diagnosis of
Chronic cough
By Caroline Wright
During inflammation, higher-thannormal levels of nitric oxide (NO) are
released from epithelial cells which line
the tubes in your lungs. The
concentration of NO in exhaled breath,
or fractional exhaled nitric oxide
(FeNO), can help identify airway
inflammation. In 20% of patients
attending Cough specialist clinics there
is evidence of eosinophillic
inflammation of the airway. This is
important because those patients with
eosinophillic inflammation respond to
ant-inflammatory medications.
Neutrophillic inflammation of the airway
which can also occur does not
necessarily respond to antiinflammatory treatment.
We propose to use the fractional
exhaled Nitric oxide test when a patient
first attends cough clinic and based
upon the FENO measurement for the
clinician to decide whether the patient
would be treated more appropriately
with anti-inflammatory therapy or
whether other options, such as anti
reflux treatment should be administered
first line.
The anti-inflammatory treatment we
wish to study is called montelukast.
This medication has been chosen
because there is evidence that this
treatment is highly effective at reducing
cough reflex sensitivity in patients with
asthmatic cough.
Please let us know your thoughts on
this study.
This study has not been written up as a
full protocol yet and your input is crucial
to us, so that we ask the right questions
and record the right data.
HULL CHRONIC COUGH FOCUS GROUP
Issue 3
1
Results of Thalidomide
To date we have had 3 patients who have tried a 1 month supply of thalidomide. As part of the patients
Thalidomide trial we have measured the patients cough over a 24hour period using our cough monitor. This has
taken place prior to Thalidomide therapy and after 3to 4 weeks of treatment with thalidomide. We also measured
cough sensitivity to citric acid, lung capacity and we asked patients to complete a number of questionnaires to look
at the patient’s subjective evaluation of their cough.
Below I have plotted some of the results as graphs.
Hull airway reflux
questionnaire score
Cough Visual analogue scores
(scale 0-10)
9
5.33
Baseline
Thalidomide
8.66
6.5
5
4.5
2.5 1.5
Baseline
44
6.5
5
26.7
Baseline
Lung volume measurements pre and post
Thalidomide
4
3
Baseline
2
Thalidomide
1
0
FEV1
FVC
FEF 25-75 FEV1/FVC
Thalidomide
Thalidomide
HULL CHRONIC COUGH GROUP NEWSLETTER 3RD EDITION
Hull Chronic
Cough Group
By [Article Author]
Respiratory Medicine ,Castle
Hill Hospital, Cottingham
HU16 5JQ
Issue| 3
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