TY - JOUR T1 - Indoor pollution and cough reflex sensitivity to capsaicin in school age children JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 42 IS - Suppl 57 SP - P1086 AU - Silvia Varechova AU - Jana Plevkova AU - Jan Hanacek AU - Lenka Mazurova AU - Tomas Zatko AU - Tatar Milos Y1 - 2013/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/42/Suppl_57/P1086.abstract N2 - A better understanding of down regulatory mechanisms of defensive airway reflexes is important to the management of chronic cough in humans. In a large epidemiological survey of cough reflex sensitivity (CRS) to inhaled capsaicin, a population of children that do not cough at any concentration of capsaicin has been identified. The aim of this study was to analyze whether the effects of gender, biomass combustion and passive smoking are associated with the “non cougher” status.Children aged 8 – 18 years (n= 310; 148 females/162 males) entered the study. Single-breath method using a flow-limited dosimeter was used to assess CRS. Each subject inhaled up to 12 capsaicin aerosol concentrations (0.61-1250 μmol/l) during 400 ms at 1 minute interval. The concentrations of capsaicin causing two (C2) coughs were reported.Results: During CRS testing 87% (270/310) of children that entered the study achieved C2 (coughers) and 13% (40/ 310) were non-coughers. The incidence of non-coughers and coughers differed significantly between gender (p=0.04) when 17% of all girls did not cough (25/148) compared 9% of boys (15/162). A significant influence of passive smoking (p=0.016) and biomass combustion (p=0.0005) on cough was found. One third of all non-coughers are passive smokers (27,5%; 11/40) compared to coughers (13%; 35/270) and one half of non coughers (52,5%) have fireplace in their home compared to 25% of coughers. For biomass combustion, there was a significant predominance of non-coughers (p=0.001) among girls (32%; 14/25) compared to boys (15.5%; 6/9).Our results have shown that non-cougher status in children is likely to be a result of indoor environmental exposure and these changes are gender dependent. ER -