Sarah Kapela

• Speech Pathologist at John Hunter Hospital

Research question Objective quantification of cough is rarely utilised outside of research settings and the role of cough frequency monitoring in clinical practice has not been established. This study examined the clinical utility of cough frequency monitoring in an outpatient clinical setting. Methods The study involved a retrospective review of...

Background: Laryngeal disorders can contribute to disease burden in severe asthma yet the nature of laryngeal disorders in severe asthma is poorly understood. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine laryngeal function in patients with severe asthma. Method: A cross-sectional observational study involving 97 participants compared laryng...

Background and aim Vocal Cord Dysfunction (VCD) and chronic [Reviewer 2 comment 1] cough (CC) are challenging conditions which lead to significant quality of life impairment. The underlying mechanisms are poorly understood, but laryngeal dysfunction may be common to both conditions. The aim of this study was to determine the characteristics of coug...

Speech pathology intervention is effective for chronic refractory cough (CRC). Speech pathology treatment for CRC includes therapy exercises to teach cough suppression and reduce laryngeal closure during respiration. Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the benefit of providing patients with supplemental pre-recorded videos of speech pathol...

Background: Chronic refractory cough (CRC), a phenotype of cough hypersensitivity syndrome (CHS), is a disabling problem. Laryngeal dysfunction may be important in CRC and CHS because laryngeal symptoms are common; however, the role of laryngeal dysfunction in CHS has not been systematically examined. Objective: To determine the nature of laryng...

Objective/hypothesis: Talking is a significant trigger for cough in patients with chronic cough; however, the stimulus required to trigger cough has not been quantified. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of a vocal loading task on phonation and cough behavior in patients with chronic cough and identify change following therapy. Stud...

Rationale: Chronic refractory cough (CRC) is a difficult problem to treat. Speech pathology treatment (SPT) improves symptoms but resolution is incomplete. Centrally acting neuromodulators also improve cough symptoms but not cough reflex sensitivity and the effect is short lived. We hypothesised that combined SPT and centrally acting neuromodulato...