@article {ChelliniP582, author = {Elisa Chellini and Federico Lavorini and Elisabetta Surrenti and Giacomo Campi and Margherita Innocenti and Giovanni Fontana}, title = {Value of deflation cough in the exclusion of acid reflux in patients with gastro-oesophageal disorders and chronic cough}, volume = {44}, number = {Suppl 58}, elocation-id = {P582}, year = {2014}, publisher = {European Respiratory Society}, abstract = {Patients with deflation cough (DC), i.e. the cough evoked by maximal lung emptying, also present symptoms of gastro-oesopahegael reflux (GOR). Accordingly, the DC has been shown to be inhibited by prior administration of an antacid. We evaluated the occurrence of DC in 92 consecutive patients (42 females, mean age 49{\textpm}5 yrs) with symptoms of GOR, 40 of whom also reported chronic cough. Patients were asked to perform 2-3 slow vital capacity manoeuvres by means of a pneumotachograph and DC appearance was detected by visually inspecting the flow recordings. Subsequently, patients underwent a 24-hour double channel oesophageal pH recordings; a reflux episode was defined as esophageal pH \<4, and a DeMeester score \>14.72 was considered indicative for abnormal acid reflux.Overall, DC occurred in 23/92 patients, and 8 of them showed abnormal acid GOR; 20 of the remaining 69 patients who did not display DC had abnormal acid GOR (P=0.60, Fisher{\textquoteright}s exact test). Among patients who also reported chronic cough DC occurred in 18/40 and 8 of them showed abnormal acid GOR; all but one of the remaining 22 patients in whom DC was not detected proved to have normal oesophageal pH recordings(P\<0.01, Fisher{\textquoteright}s exact test). In this subset group of patients the negative predictive value of DC to rule out abnormal acid reflux was 95\% with a likelihood ratio of 2.76.These preliminary results suggest that absence of DC virtually excludes abnormal acid reflux in patients with GOR symptoms and chronic cough. Thus, DC may represent an useful, inexpensive and easy to perform screening test to rule out abnormal acid reflux in patients with GOR symptoms and chronic cough.}, issn = {0903-1936}, URL = {https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P582}, eprint = {https://erj.ersjournals.com/content}, journal = {European Respiratory Journal} }