Defining cough phenotypes: chronic productive cough with obstructive lung function trajectory

Cough is one of the most frequent and predominant symptoms of many respiratory and some non-respiratory conditions, and medical practitioners are often confronted with the management of people with persistent cough. Assessment of the duration, severity, and pattern of cough, the presence of sputum production, the physical and psychological effects of cough, potential causes of cough, and associated comorbidities are part of the evaluation of persistent cough in the clinic.1 A semantics of cough has been developed2 that forms an initial basis for addressing the heterogeneity of different presentations of cough.