| Abstract: | OBJECTIVE: To assess the routine use of barium swallow study in patients with chroniccough. METHODS: Between October of 2011 and March of 2012, 95 consecutive patients submittedto chest X-ray due to chronic cough (duration > 8 weeks) were includedin the study. For study purposes, additional images were obtainedimmediately after the oral administration of 5 mL of a 5% barium sulfatesuspension. Two radiologists systematically evaluated all of the images inorder to identify any pathological changes. Fisher''s exact test and thechi-square test for categorical data were used in the comparisons. RESULTS: The images taken immediately after barium swallow revealed significantpathological conditions that were potentially related to chronic cough in 12(12.6%) of the 95 patients. These conditions, which included diaphragmatichiatal hernia, esophageal neoplasm, achalasia, esophageal diverticulum, andabnormal esophageal dilatation, were not detected on the images takenwithout contrast. After appropriate treatment, the symptoms disappeared in11 (91.6%) of the patients, whereas the treatment was ineffective in 1(8.4%). We observed no complications related to barium swallow, such ascontrast aspiration. CONCLUSIONS: Barium swallow improved the detection of significant radiographic findingsrelated to chronic cough in 11.5% of patients. These initial findingssuggest that the routine use of barium swallow can significantly increasethe sensitivity of chest X-rays in the detection of chronic cough-relatedetiologies. |
