Zhongmin Qiu

Tongji Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China · Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine

Objective: To investigate the inflammatory profiles of non-asthmatic eosinophilic bronchitis (NAEB), cough variant asthma (CVA), and classic asthma (CA) using fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) analysis to identify their unique inflammatory phenotypes. Methods: This study involved cough patients newly diagnosed, corticosteroid-naïve with CVA...

Plain language summary Role of CaNO in GERC Why was the study done? This study aimed to investigate the role of concentration of alveolar nitric oxide (CaNO) as a biomarker for peripheral airway inflammation in patients with gastroesophageal reflux-associated cough (GERC). The evaluation of airway inflammation in GERC has not been widely practiced...

Background Cough is a common symptom during and after COVID-19 infection; however, few studies have described the cough profiles of COVID-19. Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence, severity, and associated risk factors of severe and persistent cough in individuals with COVID-19 during the latest wave of the Omicron vari...

Purpose Only limited studies have depicted the unique features and management of refractory chronic cough (RCC) and unexplained chronic cough (UCC). These led to the initiation of this study, which reported the demographic characteristics, manifestations, and long-term outcomes on a large series of consecutive RCC/UCC patients, providing a guidelin...

Objective: To investigate the characteristics of esophageal dysmotility in patients with an initial diagnosis of acid/non-acid gastroesophageal reflux-related cough (GERC), and its correlation with the therapeutic response to anti-reflux treatments to search for the useful indicators to screen patients with chronic cough suitable for anti-reflux th...

ObjectiveTo investigate the predictive value of combined measurement of serum total IgE (TIgE) and fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) for corticosteroid-responsive cough (CRC), so as to identify patients with chronic cough suitable for corticosteroids treatment. MethodsThis was a retrospective study.Using non-random sampling method, the clinic...

Background: Cough variant asthma (CVA) may respond differently to anti-asthmatic treatment. There is limited data on the heterogeneity of CVA. Objective: We aimed to classify patients with CVA using cluster analysis based on clinico-physiological parameters and to unveil the underlying molecular pathways of these phenotypes with transcriptomic d...

Background: The management of refractory chronic cough (RCC) is a great challenge. Neuromodulators have long been used for RCC with imperfect efficacy. Objectives: We summarized the outcomes of the current treatments used at our specialist cough clinic, which provides a guideline-led service and real-world experience for the future management of...

Background: Use of symptom association probability (SAP) is recommended for identifying gastroesophageal reflux-induced chronic cough (GERC). This study aimed to compare the diagnostic yield of SAPs involving only cough (C-SAP) or total symptoms (T-SAP) for GERC identification. Methods: Patients with both chronic cough and other reflux-related s...

BACKGROUND Cough is a common symptom during and after COVID-19 infection; however, few studies have described the cough profiles of COVID-19. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence, severity, and associated risk factors of severe and persistent cough in individuals with COVID-19 during the latest wave of the Omicron vari...

Objective: This study aimed to clarify the characteristics of cough-reflex sensitivity and airway inflammation in patients with sinobronchial syndrome (SBS). Methods: 39 patients with SBS, 53 patients with upper airway cough syndrome (UACS) induced by rhinitis, 33 patients with chronic sinusitis without cough, and 39 healthy controls (HCs) were...

Background Asthma is a heterogeneous disease with variable symptoms, which presents with cough either as the sole or predominant symptom with or without wheezing. We compared the clinical and pathophysiological characteristics of cough predominant asthma (CPA), cough variant asthma (CVA) and classic asthma (CA) in order to determine any differentia...

Esophageal-tracheobronchial reflex is considered the main mechanism underlying cough due to gastroesophageal reflux, and is associated with esophageal hypersensitivity. We hypothesized that tracheobronchial-esophageal reflex may also exist, and may be related to esophageal hypersensitivity. To test this hypothesis, conscious and ether-anesthetized...

Automatic cough detection in the patients’ realistic audio recordings is of great significance to diagnose and monitor respiratory diseases, such as COVID-19. Many detection methods have been developed so far, but they are still unable to meet the practical requirements. In this paper, we present a deep convolutional bidirectional long short-term m...

Background The AtyPical Asthma in China (APAC) cohort is a multi-center prospective, observational cohort set-up to investigate the clinical, pathophysiological features, prognosis, and mechanisms of cough variant asthma (CVA). Objectives To present the characteristics of newly physician-diagnosed adults with CVA ( n = 328) compared to mild-modera...

Background Therapeutic efficacy of baclofen is suboptimal in the treatment of refractory gastroesophageal reflux-induced chronic cough (GERC). The purpose of the study is to identify its therapeutic predictors in a prospective clinical study. Methods 138 patients with suspected refractory GERC were treated with baclofen. Before the therapy, all th...

Objectives To elucidate the accuracy and advantages of Multichannel intraluminal impedance-pH monitoring (MII-pH) in diagnosing gastroesophageal reflux-induced chronic cough (GERC). Methods The patients with suspected GERC were recruited and underwent MII-pH, GERC was confirmed by subsequent anti-reflux treatment despite the findings of MII-pH. It...

Gastroesophageal reflux is closely associated with cough and is a common etiology of chronic cough. Cough due to reflux can be elicited by acidic and non-acidic reflux, and its assessment and diagnosis are a process to establish a cause–effect relation between reflux and cough, with esophageal impedance–pH monitoring as a gold standard for the dete...

Background Gabapentin is recommended for the treatment of chronic refractory cough (CRC). This study aims to identify its therapeutic predictors in a prospective clinical study. Methods A total of 179 patients with CRC were treated with gabapentin. Prior to the therapy, all patients were assessed by Hull Airway Reflux Questionnaire (HARQ) and inha...

Background: There is a need to find a simple, non-invasive and effective diagnostic tool for diagnosing gastroesophageal reflux-induced chronic cough (GERC) in clinic. This study aimed to evaluate the predictive diagnostic value of Hull airway reflux questionnaire (HARQ) and its combination with gastroesophageal reflux disease questionnaire (GerdQ...

Background: Evidence of treatment against cough variant asthma (CVA) is insufficient for the clinical practice in China. We aimed at evaluating the real-world effectiveness of montelukast (MONT) alone or in combination with low-dose inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) and low-dose ICS plus long-acting beta-2-agonists (LABA) for Chinese CVA patients in a...

Background Asthmatic patients with chest tightness as their only presenting symptom (chest tightness variant asthma [CTVA]) have clinical characteristics of eosinophilic airway inflammation similar to those of classic asthma (CA); however, whether CTVA has similar response to antiasthma treatment as compared with CA remains unclear. Objective The...

Refractory gastroesophageal reflux-induced chronic cough (GERC) is a special type of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) with predominant cough resistant to pragmatic standard anti-reflux therapy including antisecretory agents alone or in combination with promotility agents but with a favorable response to intensified anti-reflux treatment. The...

Cough exacerbation in cold environments is a characteristic feature of patients with chronic cough. There is consensus that inhalation of cold air stimulates cough receptors but this idea is not consistent with the fact that cold air is usually unable to directly enter the lower airway. To elucidate the effects of cold environments and transient re...

Background Increasing evidence indicates that gut microbiota plays an important role in cancer progression. However, the underlying mechanism remains largely unknown. Here, we report that broad-spectrum antibiotics (ABX) treatment leads to enhanced metastasis by the alteration of gut microbiome composition. Methods Cancer LLC and B16-F10 cell meta...

Background Gabapentin is recommended for the treatment of chronic refractory cough. This study aims to identify its therapeutic predictors in a prospective clinical study. Methods 179 patients with chronic refractory cough were treated with gabapentin. Prior to the therapy, all patients were assessed by Hull Airway Reflux Questionnaire (HARQ) and i...

Clinically, chronic cough can be effectively controlled in most patients by etiological treatment; however, there remain a small number of patients whose cough has unidentifiable etiology or where treatment efficacy is poor following etiology identification, whose condition is described as unexplained chronic cough or refractory chronic cough. Pati...

Background: This study aimed to investigate the reflux characteristics in patients with gastroesophageal reflux-related chronic cough (GERC) complicated by laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR). Methods: Patients with chronic cough were recruited. Reflux symptom index (RSI) scoring, cough symptom scoring, assessment of capsaicin cough sensitivity, and...

Emerging evidence indicates that microRNAs (miRNAs) play fundamental roles in the pathogenesis of multiple diseases, including acute lung injury (ALI). Here, we discovered that miR-199a-3p was significantly downregulated in ALI lung tissues using a microarray analysis. In vitro lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatment of the human epithelial cell line A5...

Background: The frequency distributions of the etiologies of chronic cough have changed over time. This study aimed to investigate the changing etiological frequency of chronic cough in a tertiary hospital in Shanghai, China, and to explore the clinical significance. Methods: Medical records of 1,311 patients with chronic cough who visit our hos...

Linked Content This article is linked to Dong et al and Naik and Vaezi papers. To view these articles, visit https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.15169 and https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.15205.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate cough hypersensitivity and its potential mechanisms in patients with obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS). Methods: Fifteen OSAHS patients, 12 simple snoring patients, and 15 healthy volunteers received cough sensitivity test and induced sputum cytology. Cough thresholds C2 and C...

Background Neuromodulators are considered potential therapeutic options for refractory gastro‐oesophageal reflux‐induced chronic cough. Aim To compare the efficacy of gabapentin and baclofen in patients with suspected refractory gastro‐oesophageal reflux‐induced chronic cough. Methods Two hundred and thirty‐four patients with suspected refractory...

Objective This study was performed to establish a novel model of citric acid-induced chronic cough in guinea pigs and to investigate the pathogenesis of cough hypersensitivity. Methods Healthy conscious guinea pigs inhaled citric acid (0.4 M) for 3 minutes twice daily for 25 days. Cough reactivity was evaluated, substance P (SP) and calcitonin gen...

Background: Empirical three-step therapy has been proved in just one hospital. This study aimed to demonstrate applicability of the sequential empirical three-step therapy for chronic cough in different clinical settings. Methods: Sequential empirical three-step therapy was given to patients with chronic cough in one tertiary and three secondary...

Cough is a common symptom in respiratory diseases. Objectively evaluating the quantity and intensity of cough by pattern recognition technologies can provide valuable clinical information for cough diagnosis and monitoring. Cough detection is the basis of cough diagnosis and analysis. It aims at detecting cough events and their exact boundaries fro...

Objective: To explore the changes in the esophageal function and their association with the therapeutic outcome in patients with gastroesophageal reflux-induced chronic cough (GERC). Methods: One hundred thirty-five patients with definite GERC consecutively referred to our respiratory clinic were recruited into the study between January 2012 and Au...

Background: There have been several published reports on the use of orally administered, specific centrally acting medicines for the treatment of idiopathic cough; however, there is no extant systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated their efficacy and safety for the treatment of idiopathic cough in human beings. Met...

Objective: To validate the effectiveness, repeatability and treatment responsiveness of the Chinese version of Hull airway reflux questionnaire (HARQ), and to determine its clinical value. Methods: A standard Chinese version of HARQ was developed by an established translation procedure and its repeatability was assessed in a preliminary study in...

Background: Refractory gastroesophageal reflux-induced chronic cough (GERC) is difficult to manage. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the efficacy of a novel stepwise protocol for treating this condition. Methods: A total of 103 consecutive patients with suspected refractory reflux-induced chronic cough failing to a standard anti-reflux th...

The androgen receptor (AR) is required for prostate development and is also a major driver of prostate cancer pathogenesis. Thus androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is the mainstay of treatment for advanced prostate cancer. However, castration resistance due to expression of constitutively active AR splice variants is a significant challenge to pros...

Background: Cough is an essential symptom in respiratory diseases. In the measurement of cough severity, an accurate and objective cough monitor is expected by respiratory disease society. This paper aims to introduce a better performed algorithm, pretrained deep neural network (DNN), to the cough classification problem, which is a key step in the...

Refractory chronic cough due to gastroesophageal reflux is a troublesome condition unresponsive to the standard medical anti-reflux therapy. Its underlying mechanisms may include incomplete acid suppression, non-acid reflux, transient lower esophageal sphincter relaxations and esophageal hypersensitivity. The diagnosis of this disorder depends on b...

Gastroesophageal reflux (GER) is one of the most common causes of chronic cough, and chronic cough due to GER represents a subtype of GER-related diseases. Gastroesophageal reflux-induced chronic cough (GERC) can be divided into two subgroups based on the pH of the GER. Nonacid GERC is less common than acid GERC, and its diagnosis and treatment str...

Background: Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is able to improve dyspnea, endurance capacity, and health-related quality of life in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients, but it is rarely used in China. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness and safety of PR after exacerbation of COPD. Material and methods: Patients admitted to...

Upper airway cough syndrome (UACS), previously referred to as postnasal drip syndrome, is one of the most common causes of chronic cough. However, the pathogenesis of UACS/postnasal drip syndrome remains unclear, and physicians in countries throughout the world have different definitions and ways of treating this disease. The various proposed patho...

The efficacy of montelukast (MONT), a cysteinyl leukotriene receptor antagonist, in nonasthmatic eosinophilic bronchitis (NAEB), especially its influence on cough associated life quality is still indefinite. We evaluated the efficacy of MONT combined with budesonide (BUD) as compared to BUD monotherapy in improving life quality, suppressing airway...

Cough detection and assessment have crucial clinical value for respiratory diseases. Subjective assessments are widely adopted in clinical measurement nowadays, but they are neither accurate nor reliable. An automatic and objective system for cough assessment is strongly expected. Automatic cough detection from audio signal has been studied by peer...

To investigate the characteristics of gastroesophageal reflux induced cough (GERC) with airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR). Compared to patients with GERC alone and healthy subjects, cough sensitivity, multi-channel intraluminal impedance combined with pH monitoring and airway inflammation were evaluated in patients with GERC and AHR. 23 patients wer...

Background and objective: Little is known about non-acid gastroesophageal reflux-induced chronic cough (GERC). The purpose of the study is to explore the clinical characteristics of non-acid GERC. Methods: Clinical symptoms, cough symptom score, capsaicin cough sensitivity, gastroesophageal reflux diagnostic questionnaire (GerdQ) score, findings...

To explore the diagnostic value and optimal cut-off point of symptom index (SI) in gastroesophageal reflux-induced chronic cough (GERC). The recordings of multichannel intraluminal esophageal impedance and pH monitoring were retrospectively analyzed in 118 patients with suspicious GERC. SI for all the refluxes, acid reflux and non-acid reflux was c...

Empirical therapy has been recommended as an initial clinical approach for treating gastroesophageal reflux-induced chronic cough (GERC). This study compared the predictive accuracy of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease Questionnaire (GerdQ) with the accuracy of multi-channel intraluminal impedance-pH monitoring (MII-pH) for GERC. A total of 126 conse...